Chicago Conference: 1997
Table of Contents
Philippians 3
Reading
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My heart again.
What? Right, That's all the word for our day.
She'll save our soul.
And make God see.
How long it is The Lord is the Lord, the glory, the Lord.
Yeah.
00:05:54
That I may know him. I'm wondering if we could consider the third chapter.
Of Philippians.
We feel we should read the whole chapter.
Yes, 21 verses.
Philippians chapter 3.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, Beware of the concision, For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath, whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the war of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
But a lot of things were gain to me, those I counted lost for Christ, yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but them, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness.
Which is of God by faith that I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either, were already perfect, But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as being perfect, be thus minded, And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where to we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mine the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is is in their shame, who mind earthly things for our conversation.
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Is in heaven from whence we look. Also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashion like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
We have had this passage before us many times before, but Paul does not apologize to the Philippians that he was writing the same things to them as he says. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. We have to be told over and over again precious truths that are ours to enjoy and.
That which marks up the Christian testimony in these last days, rejoice in the Lord. This epistle is normal Christian experience, and you find rejoicing and joy all through it. It is what is characteristic of the Christian I don't think sin is mentioned in this epistle. The victory of walking with the Lord is prominent throughout.
But there were enemies.
And there are today to rob us of what is truly ours. And so he says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. I think each one of those has a Jewish flavor to it. The.
The greatest enemy to Christianity is the law, the principle of law. I mean that we gain God's favor by doing something.
It's all grace and to be established in grace, and how easy it is to shift off of the ground of grace to that of law, the principle of law.
We tend to put ourselves under law in many ways.
The dogs were noted for tearing and.
Devouring.
And so it is. Beware of dogs. Beware of those that would put you under ******* and seek to rob you of your blessings that are in Christ. Evil workers are those that promote that which is not of God, not according to the New Testament teaching of grace. Beware of the concision. You get an example of what the concision is in at the time of length.
Before Easter, people will deny themselves something. If they smoke, they'll deny themselves smoking or if they drink, they don't drink during that time, or if they swear, they don't swear during that time. That's the principle of the concision.
Tastes not. Touch not. Handle not. That's the law. Can't do this. You can't touch this. You can't. And you deny yourself those things and what it is, it's fixing up the old man.
It's not the circumcision, which is a total cutting off of the old man. And the principle of law is to fix up the old man and put one under certain restrictions. I can't do this and I can't do that. And when one follows that, he feels good about himself and he hasn't come to the realization of what Christianity really is. It's a complete judgment of all that we are in the flesh.
And in Adam setting aside of the old man altogether, And now we have.
We are a Newman in Christ. It's not just denying myself this or that vice or evil or bad habit that I have, but it's a complete change. It's going from Adam to Christ and from the flesh to the Spirit. And this is what Christianity is all throughout this chapter he is comparing the excellence, the greatness of Christianity versus the attainments that he had achieved as a man.
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A very religious man, Saul of Tarsus. He's not comparing himself the righteousness that he has in Christ with his evil deeds and the evil that he did when he persecuted the church. In fact, when he lists the persecution of the Church in this chapter, it was something that he gloried in. He was he was proud of the fact that he was doing that as a Jew. He was proud of the fact that he was snuffing out evil.
The evil of Christianity, that new religion that had come in the the followers of the despised Jesus of Nazareth. He thought he was doing the will of God when he did that, and so that was to his credit. And so in this chapter, when he talks about laying aside the righteousness which he had as a man in the flesh, a religious man, the things he could glory in, in the flesh, he says, I found something infinitely better.
Christ is now my righteousness, and I have all in Him, and all the things that I once gloried in, that I once took pleasure in, that I once thought good of. I I counted down and lost. And so he's now seen what he was in the flesh of something like Job, who he gloried in his attainments, He gloried in His good works, and that was his problem.
Cried when he got in the presence of the Lord. He said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine high see of thee, Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. He came to the end of himself.
Sometimes you're driving along and you'll see a sticker. Maybe some of us have them. Proud parent of a, of an honor student you know well. Those are things that we can glory in, in the flesh.
And we can glory when our children do well. We can glory in all kinds of things, but the Christian has come to the realization that he glories only in Christ.
And that's what it means to rejoice in the Lord. Oh, and it's the glory in the Lord. Christianity is not so much what we are, it's what our God is. And I think it's so important to grasp that, like you say.
Judaism, in a certain way I can say is just about the opposite of Christianity. In Judaism, man what man could produce was the what was looked for. But in Christianity, God in effect says I have now tested what man was in the flesh. The test is over. Man has failed the test. Now I'm going to show you my own heart and so.
What is Christianity? But what is Christ? That is Christianity, brethren into glory in all that He is for us the tendency, the constant tendency, is to revert to what I am. What you mentioned, the.
Common What is mentioned so often today to feel good about yourself, self esteem. It is subtly a attack on what Christianity is rather than we don't figure any longer before God as men in the flesh. We're gone, we're out of the picture. What is Christianity but having a living?
Resurrected, glorified man in the glory before our souls. That's our life up there. It's not what we are. We start looking at ourselves. We're going to get discouraged.
We're going to see things that we're not satisfied with. When you look up at the glory of God and see that glorious man up there, that's Christianity. And to rejoice in the Lord is so important and that's the positive side. And then you get the negative warnings. But.
Notice chapter 4 and verse 4. You get the same exhortation.
In chapter 3, verse one rejoice in the Lord How long, brethren?
Is that the real experience? Are we always rejoicing? Brother, I have to confess that it's not always so. Why? Because I'm not occupied constantly with Christ. I'm distracted often times and in the measure that my thoughts, my mind is on other things distracted. I'm not going to be rejoicing in that nature.
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But it is that we have our rejoicing in the Lord.
Brethren, it's always it's an exhortation. He doesn't say rejoice in the Lord if you can.
Rejoice in the Lord, always so important, he says Again. I say rejoice. We have reason to rejoice, brethren, when we look at our portion in Christ. Important to get our eyes off ourselves, what we are.
This world around. Look up into the glory. See a man who went through this world.
And who is now the right hand of God in the highest position of honor and glory? Our Savior, our life, our all up there we have reason to rejoice. Paul was in prison when he wrote this. He couldn't rejoice in his circumstances, but he could always rejoice in the Lord.
I recall that Ezra who lived in very, very difficult days in the 5th century.
He said that as they were going to return, the little group was going to go back to Israel. He said there was a warning, 2 warnings, one was the at the hand of the enemy and then he said and they that lay wait to deceive.
So we have two enemies too.
Satan would set before younger ones, possibly.
The immorality around you're living. We're living in a world of filth and they're doing openly what they used to do in the dark, but that is the moral side, immorality. But the other side is that they that lay in wheat. By the way, this is what we have here, I believe, and that is the deception of bad teaching. So I would just like to say that the meeting.
You younger ones, if you listen to what the Lord is saying to you, you will be armed against the enemy that lies in wait to get you and to deceive you. But as we're hearing, we have one positive, and that is that when we are having our eye only on Christ, that is the safeguard against anything that.
An enemy Satan is trying to deceive everyone of us, young and older like, but if our eye is on Christ, then we're safe.
The reason Christianity is not popular.
Is because it gives no place, no place to the first man you see. These signs say no to drugs.
That's like the principle at Lent, you know, you deny yourself certain bad habits that you have and say no to drugs.
No to the flesh.
Is not something the world will accept.
The world promotes indulging the flesh it promotes.
Cheating.
Lying, stealing, fornication and all these evils. It promotes these things but there are some things which are self-destructive like drugs and so it will say say no to these.
But say no to all that is appealing. Take for instance, sports. Sports is a multibillion dollar business and that's why it's promoted so much. Because man is, he has a God and his God, his money and.
So he will use whatever he can to make money.
I find it sad when I go to a room where there's a young boy that's been staying and I'm given that room to stay in and I see pictures on the wall of heroes that he has and they're usually sports figures.
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You know, that's a form of idolatry.
And some of these men that we that we admire as our heroes are morally reprobate persons. Or they can play basketball well, or baseball well, or football well, or hockey well. Whatever it is, they can do that well. But their life is a life of sin. Well, we ought not to be eulogizing and admiring and hanging up pictures of those kinds of people.
Who is it that we want to exalt?
Only one man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one.
And all the others, no matter how admirable they might be and whatever, whatever pursuit they're in.
They're sinners. They're not to be the object of our hearts. Christ is and everything that appeals to the first man into the flesh, and that is attractive to me, naturally.
I am to judge that.
And did not pursue it well. These are these are very practical things in school. You children, you young people, you students, you're being taught principles which are diametrically the opposite of what this book says. Exactly the opposite as Bob was mentioning Self esteem, feel good about yourself and.
When the Apostle Paul.
Came to.
Himself and came to the realization when Saul of Tarsus did and he became the apostle Paul. Saul was promoting himself, but Paul was promoting Christ.
And this is Christianity. The world does not want that. The world does not want him. The last the world saw of him was a man crucified on a cross. And they cried out away with this man. We will not have this Mandarin over us. The world has not changed young people. It does not want him.
It will not have him. And if you love him, you will not pursue the same things that the world pursues.
It's interesting to realize that the book, this book that we have divorced Philippians, is a very great contrast with Ephesians. And sometimes we take up the book of Ephesians, that is the church seen in Christ in Heaven.
But Philippians is the reverse. It's looking down from heaven and seeing Christ in US on earth.
And it's very needed to realize that here are in Ephesians. Why they were seen as seated up in heaven. Wonderful truth to fill our hearts and joyful anticipation of that and realization of it. But we need to realize now what's Philippians.
Poor people struggling down here on this earth. That's us beloved ones, and we need both those views.
To keep a balance, but this book is full of those practical.
Exhortation for us in our life down here, but ISIL almost also say that Philippians was, I understand, written almost at the end of the apostles life around 64 first and around 65 in his life. And the last book that Paul wrote second Timothy is around 66. So this is very close to the end of the apostles days and as it were, just like a father writing a letter to his children.
He's just saying, I'll hear this and listen. You watch out for this. Watch out for the oh beloved young people. May you hear what the Lord is saying to you. He loves you and He wants to protect you and me. Not only the young ones, but all of us were subject to the greatest attacks these days as never before, on the truth of Christ as the one gathering center.
And all that we might realize that he's with us in all our difficulties. He wants to lift us up and have our thoughts centered into Christ.
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Isn't that true that the anime would seek to rob us and that's really what he's doing when you allow? When we follow these things, we're robbing Christ of his glory, and I believe it's so important for us to realize that it says in the beginning and it's been stressed before, rejoice in the Lord.
We might feel good about certain things down here, but it's not really.
And I believe that's an important thing for all of us to realize. Doesn't seem like it's very young people through. But I need that definition just as much today, because I did when I was young. And the anime is going to try to rob us from the joy and unhappiness that we have in the Lord. If he could make you unhappy, he has succeeded. So we need to be reminded of these things, very practical way.
We have some wonderful examples given. I think it might be worthwhile to notice that from verses 4 through 14 the Apostle uses himself as an example and and it's very strong considering on nature that like verse 7 says. But what things were again to me I those I counted lost for Christ? Well, there are many things we might count for gain to ourselves, progress in the job.
Or things that we say, Well, I've done well, I've done a good job. Here is a man who really achieved and he said, I counted them for loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ. But where it's all Paul, you'll notice right through verse 14. It's all in the first person, he says. In verse 14 I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But I think it's important to recognize as we read these things about the Apostle Paul.
This objective it says in verse 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. In other words, Paul uses himself. He was a Hebrew of a Hebrews. He had attained to the highest levels of Judaism. He was highly respected, but he counted it all for loss, but for the knowledge of Christ. And then we.
Art. If he thus minded, That's what struck me. It's not something we can say. The Apostle Paul was a great servant of God, and he was chosen, and he was able to do those things. Now this is a word for us. That's what he says. If he gives himself as an example, he says, let us therefore as many as be perfect, not as mature, be thus minded. And so this is a word for us to have a right understanding of what's going to count for eternity if there's anything that the Lord is pleased to give us.
And this earth may be through our own efforts, but still He gave us the ability to do it. It still will count for nothing.
An eternity is to know Christ, and it's to have things in the balance, to understand what we're about in this earth. That doesn't tell us that we're to go out and give up our jobs or sell our houses or whatever. It's just to have things in the right balance, to see what is worthwhile for all eternity and what is it is to know Christ.
It's interesting that, as you pointed out, **** verse three We are the circumcision, and then verse 15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect, that is, those that have a full understanding of the Christian position and Christianity. But I just want to dwell a little on verse three. We are the circumcision.
In contrast with the concision, which is a group that gives up this or that, a few things that.
They feel that in doing that, it will make them more acceptable to God. And the Circumcision are those that realize that all that they are in Adam and in the flesh has been judged at the cross. And they accept that there's no good in me, no good in US. And we're not to feel good about ourselves, we're to feel good about the Lord. He's the one we're to feel good about. We are the Circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit. We don't worship like they did in the Old Testament by musical instruments.
We don't worship by orchestras, as is the case in so many churches today. We don't worship by the piano or any instrument that has no soul. No spirit is not capable of producing anything that God is pleased with. You can have an unsafe person at an organ or a piano that plays beautifully, or any musical instrument, and it sounds nice.
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But God doesn't find any joy in that. We worship in the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is within us. He indwells us, and He produces in our souls that worship, that adoration, that praise to him of which he is alone worthy. We worship God in the Spirit, or, it says in Mr. Darby's translation, we worship by the Spirit of God, not by some mechanical contrivance, however nicely that sounds in our ears, but we worship by the Spirit of God.
We rejoice not in our attainments, not in our abilities, not in anything that we might have as given by God. But we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh.
That's those principles are diametrically the opposite to what you're taught in school today. Just the opposite and these things that have come out.
In just in my lifetime, the enemy has gotten ahold of our school system. The books that are coming out nowadays are some of them just plain blasphemous.
They're they're definitely the work of the enemy against Christ and.
The world is tolerant of every religion except one.
And that's Christianity.
The world is intolerant of Christians who really want to walk in the path of obedience to the word of God. It'll it'll bear. It'll tolerate Christians that compromise and have one foot in the world and one foot trying to follow the Lord, but one who's out and out.
Or Christ. The world has no room for it, for him or her whatsoever. None.
That's why Paul was in prison, because they didn't really have any.
Place in this world where a man that was, as you say, given to those principles, I'd like to just say for maybe the young what has been a help to me in contrasting concision with circumcision.
Concision is cutting half the flesh, whereas circumcision means cutting off the flesh, Circa means all the way around it.
It is completely cut off. In other words, you don't recognize it any longer as a principle of action any longer. And I think it's so good for young people. What is sometimes said, I think of people who diagnose certain young people, they need some self esteem.
It's not self esteem that they need. What they need is deliverance from all that we are as men in the flesh. As long as you're focused in on yourself, you're going to struggle. Christianity is not primarily focused inward. It's focused upward. It's focused on the person of Christ. It's objective first of all. I think it's so important to get that straight in our minds and Paul himself.
Even though he was the cheapest of the apostles, had to say his own judgment in Romans 7, I know that in me, that is in my flesh.
Dwelleth. No good thing, Absolutely nothing good there, brother. And if we're going to look inside, we're going to come sooner or later to that same conclusion. But it is a tremendously painful experience.
And they see some young people just struggling with that issue. It's by simple faith to recognize before God that God is done with that, and we need to be done with it ourselves, in our own minds to realize now that our position is dead with Christ, buried with him, raised with him. And we look up into the glory. We see our life up there at God's right hand.
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to rejoice in him, that's deliverance from what we are. But it's so important because we have deceitful hearts, young people, and sometimes even unconsciously, we are occupied with what we are and it's not Christianity.
No confidence in the flesh. Christians should be a confident person, but not confident in himself, confident in the Lord at all times. But our hearts are so deceitful that sometimes we can persuade ourselves that we are being confident in the Lord. And the Lord only sees our hearts and sees perhaps that there's a lot of self-confidence there. So he allows trials to take place till we come not only doctrinally but practically to realize.
It's true what God says. It's true. There is no good thing in this flesh. Absolutely man.
It's important for us to.
Young ones and all old ones to get a grasp on what the flesh is. As we mentioned quite a few times and in our 4th course, no confidence in the flesh well.
Peter.
In his writings he helped me a great deal. A long time ago when I read that verse, and it was explained to me, either that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.
What's that mean?
Well, let's not. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking that if we don't do what the flesh would like to do, that verse says we don't sin, but the flesh that we have, it suffers. It wants to do those things. And if it doesn't, why can't I do this or why can't I do that? The flesh suffers in us. But what's the verse say?
We don't sin. So when we admit that it really is our old nature that would love to do that, but when we for the Lords sake, don't do it, we don't sin. And that is what was a great help to me long ago.
I suppose you could say that the Apostle Paul.
Had more to glory in as Saul of Tarsus in the flesh, the attainments that he had made in Judaism says in verse four, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. Is he saying, if anyone can have confidence in the flesh, surely it's I I can do it. Look, look at all that I could boast in as a man in the flesh. Religious man, If any other man thinketh that he hath, where of he might trust in the flesh?
So he's giving what he could glory in as a man in the flesh.
Not his bad things, but the things that were to his credit.
Circumcised, the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee. All of these things he gloried, and they were all to his credit as a man in the flesh, a religious man.
Concerning Zeal persecuting the Church, as far as a religious Jew is concerned, that was one of his crowning accomplishments, that he was persecuting those that were part of that false religion. So he thought.
And false religion they followed that Jesus of Nazareth the one that.
That we crucified the one that we put to death because he was a blasphemer, he said. He was the Son of God. That's blasphemy.
He claimed to be God. That's blasphemy. We put him to death and.
So I persecuted the church. That was zeal. That was zeal that he had. And then he says, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. He kept the law as far as a natural man can keep it, as perfectly as anyone He kept it. If you read Romans 7, he lets you know that the last commandment, thou shalt not lust, killed him. As far as what the law required outwardly, and all its ordinances and forms and ceremonies, he kept it. He never ate pork, he never ate ham, he never ate forbidden meats.
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He kept the Law perfectly, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. So he's listing the things that were to his credit as a religious man.
But things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. He found now something so infinitely superior to all his Judaism that he gloried in, and that he was the best in that he could count all those things that he wants gloried in, that he thought so highly of, and he could count it loss and doubt.
He found Christ, which was infinitely better. Have we have we found Him to be such for us?
Do we have to ask ourselves the question?
The 8th day.
Where Israel never knew anything about it. What is the age today? Oh, that's resurrection. That's the Lord's day. There's no 9th day for Christianity. This is the.
This is the beginning and the end. Now we're in the eighth day, so that put an end to.
To Judaism, as Chuck has mentioned, that's the end of it. But the resurrection now onto the 8th day, and that's our day and that's never going to end.
Nobody had to pry these things off of all what he gloried in. What was it that created such a dramatic change in the Apostle Paul that those things that were gain to him are now all counted? Loss. What was it? It's one glimpse of that glorious man that shone down from him from heaven.
He was on his road to Damascus. One glimpse of that man. Everything changed. And I said that's really the power of Christianity. It's not coming and saying, hey, you can't do this and you can't do that. And the other thing you shouldn't do either power of Christianity is getting the soul filled with Christ. And those things just drop off like autumn leaves. They no longer have any place. They're of no value.
Fact he wants to get rid of them. Very strong feelings expressed here, but it's what created the change was 1 Glimpse that glorious savior.
We've just passed. We have to close, but we've just passed.
A A holiday Halloween that is satanic. If the world promotes it, it's not for the Christian. I want to say that again. If the world promotes it, it's not for the Christian.
And to have our children partake in that kind of thing is wrong.
Trick or treat? If you don't treat me, I'm going to trick you. I'm going to do some damage to your property. That's what it means. What part has a Christian to do with that kind of thing?
And yet it's so nice and everyone likes it so, and the costumes are appealing and all these things that appeal to the flesh. And so we go along with these things sometimes.
It's not Christianity at all. In fact, if you really knew the the history and the origin of that holiday, it's Satanic.
And it's getting worse and worse and worse every year. Why is it promoted? Because it's a multi billion dollar business.
That's why.
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#46 in the back.
M46 in the appendix.
Where God can fly.
God.
M. Conley, Philippians 3
Open—M. Conley, Rdg.
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
In line with what we've had in our meeting, that hymn was written by George W Fraser, who also wrote 245 on that same night. Lord Jesus, lofty, glorious, beautiful hymn. But he was so afraid that he was so much in love with his wife that it was a distraction, just as we've had today. And he sat down and he wrote this game.
Just before we close, just read one first repeat Chapter 11.
Now faith of the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Father, again, we just thank you for this privilege we've had for this reading meeting. You think, Steve, that the things that we have hope for, that the love which is from me is maybe things that we don't presently see on earth, the OR not things that we can be found in our flesh, things that are present in this world. But there are things that are far greater, far greater things which are not seen with our eyes, but are given through faith, which is gift from Thee.
And so, Father, we just pray that each of us would exercise and realize that faith which Thou has given us. Realize that that there is nothing in ourselves, but Thou has provided all things for us through the cause of Thy precious Son. And so, Father, again we rejoice in Thee and we do crazy and thank Thee that again we can't have these things brought before. Is that again our flesh is is nothing that is anything good, but that was provided so much better things for us. And so, Father, we just pray that our hearts are being moved towards those things which are above.
Things that aren't seen down here and so following mention these things are difficult for us to understand. Maybe as a young person they're they're hard to comprehend things that aren't seen, but we just trust that in the in the meeting to follow that we can comprehend and grasp ourselves. Those things that I was given us those things which aren't seen but yet through faith you can't believe and rejoice in them. So again we just crazy and thinking and obviously if my son's doing more cheesy Amen.
I have a few.
Well, I trusted the Lord. That's lifted me up out of my seat.
Let's pray.
Or go out and our Father, we have not strength for these things.
We thank thee, says in thy word.
Not by power, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
And so we.
Look to thee this afternoon that.
Though it's 'cause us to understand.
And that our hearts might be enlarged and drawn after thee.
We cross the.
Or a blessing.
We thank thee as we've read today.
For God before us, who can be against us, We thank thee. There's not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty. God has chosen the weak and the foolish.
And so we thank thee today, Lord Jesus, that we would take that place, and we would give thee the glory.
And so, yeah, so I held.
Commit the time into thy hands in the name.
Of the Lord Jesus.
Well, I just have something real simple.
But that's the kind of things that I like.
John 10. If we could look at John 10.
I.
John 10, verse 10.
We've all heard it. Unless there's someone really new here, we've all heard this verse.
Well, look what it says.
I am calm that they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly.
Amazing words, aren't they?
Read another verse.
I think it's Second Corinthians 3.
Actually, maybe it's.
Is it Second Corinthians 3?
Look at this. This is amazing to me.
2nd Corinthians 3, verse 6.
For the letter killeth.
But the Spirit giveth life.
Well.
What I have on my heart tonight is I know what it's like. I know what it's like to live in the land of should you know what I mean? Should you know when a brother talks about.
00:10:24
Something that I should be doing and if I do it because.
I and, and and maybe I feel a bit of guilt in my heart about it.
And.
And so I'm motivated. I'm motivated to change my behavior in that direction.
Well, I've been there.
When I got saved, I came into. I was in an assembly that.
They were.
Well, it was very much designed after the gathered stains.
But they were.
They were a rip roaring Blanche. I tell you. We had meetings every night. We had all nights of prayer once a month. And this went on for three years. And and I was trying so hard to be that and I just couldn't do it. And I remember I was sitting at a meeting one night.
And and.
The man who had started this.
Assembly the man who had done this.
His son was speaking and.
And I didn't, I didn't have a real high regard for his son, but the Lord knows. But anyway, when he was talking about peace and joy and I sat in that meeting and I said.
Yeah, I ain't got any idea what that guy's talking about, because I sure don't have any of it. And so I got up and I walked out of that meeting and I walked down the sidewalk.
And.
I well, I was living in a house with a bunch of a bunch of.
Brothers.
And Oh my, it was if I didn't, if you didn't make it to a meeting, you were held by the arm and said we really missed you, brother, but you didn't feel that tenderness.
And anyway, I walked down that sidewalk. I remember it now. The reason I'm telling this story is I don't want to draw attention to myself, but I have a burden for the young people.
So anyway, I walked down that sidewalk and I talked to the Lord and I, I said.
I said, Lord Jesus, why? I don't know. I don't, I don't have any of these things. But I know if I stay here any longer, I'm going to flip out. Yeah, real common terms. I'm going to. I'm going to have a problem, a real problem. You know you have a problem when you try and be something you're not. You try and be something you're not, you're going to run into trouble. You know, you buy a Cadillac and you try and haul rocks with it, You'll do it for a little while.
It's going to run into trouble.
You know what's a wonderful thing?
What's a wonderful thing?
Is that?
The Lord Jesus.
Comes right to where you're at.
Young person.
He'll come right where you're at, you know?
All these wonderful things that the Lord has for us, but you know when you first get saved or.
If you try and walk in another man's shoes, which you can't do it.
There was that, there's that, there's that track I read. I seen it a long time ago and I don't know if it's in print anymore, but.
But it's called Rex on the Burma Rd. I think something like that. I don't know if that tracks still in print. But anyway, this is a terrible Rd. This Burma Rd. up in the high mountains.
And the the brethren that have spoken today, they know this world is a terrible place. It's an awful place. I hate it here.
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Every day I get up.
And as I move through the day, I see sin in me every day. Every day it's there.
I see sin and the people at work, I see it in my brother, I see it in my family. It's all over. But the Lord God commendeth His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We don't stop sin. We are having the experience of it inside of me each day it's there.
But I have a savior, and what a wonderful thing.
God wants you to be real with Him. You come to him where you're at, you know?
That's that's the I don't think I ever got to the end of that story of the Burma Rd. But what it was was that the end of that track where I read this track. I don't know how many years ago, a decade anyway, probably, but.
At the end of that track, it talks about this truck that he saw. It was a big, strong truck.
See, these are things I can understand.
Big strong truck and what what was and the word on the side of his truck was savior.
And that truck traveled that road to look for to look for ones that had gotten into trouble. And that truck had to go right where those people, right where that person was. And that is what the Lord Jesus has done.
Says in John 15. You know, it's a wonderful thing.
I used to think.
I used to think when I when I first got saved, you know that verse that I quoted when I prayed, it says.
No, I think I quote it right well.
Well, I'll go to John 15 for a minute. Let's go to John 15. Real simple verses, but that's the kind I need. John 15.
Yeah, verse 5.
For without me you can do nothing. Well, there it is. It says it, doesn't it? It's so simple.
For me, you can't do nothing. OK, well, that verse that's in Zachariah.
I think it's Zechariah 4. I just looked it up a little bit ago.
Zechariah 4. The end of verse 6.
Not by my, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.
Now an example that I think of something that is so encouraging to me.
Well.
I heard it thousands of times, but there we go. Someday, some days, someday it'll stick. But anyway, is that and is that the Lord change us on the inside?
Certainly. That's a principle in Scripture, isn't it? Lord says clean up the inside of the cop.
We've got the and he can only do it. The Lord Jesus can only do it. He can put you know, you know what I was going to say earlier about what touches my heart and it's so encouraging is that.
Where is that? I forget. What's the chapter that the Good Samaritan is in?
Look, look down Luke 10.
In Luke 10.
Okay, okay.
OK.
This is so encouraging to me. Luke 10.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.
That man that had been left half dead and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.
That is so great because what did he have? He really had it in his heart.
He You know how many times I drive down the road and I see someone on the side and I go, boy, I sure don't want to stop.
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What a wonderful thing, but a wonderful thing. If I was driving down the road and I see someone now, you know, I assess the situation very carefully and see if there's some way that I can make it so I so my conscience can be eased and I don't have to stop.
But you know, maybe you know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm the only one like this. But anyway.
But here this is a different thing. This Samaritan, when he saw him, he said I got to help him. Why? He had it in his heart. He really felt compassion for him. He, this Samaritan did not say I should help. He said I got to help him. It was his only choice because his heart.
Drove him to it.
Wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing. Now, if you don't have that in your heart, in my heart, it's kind of weak. If you don't have that in your heart, what do you do?
Say, Lord Jesus, help me.
It ain't there. You'll have to put it there. Then what are you going to do when he puts it there? Then you're going to give him the praise and you're going to say, you know, Lord Jesus, you've changed me and I didn't do it.
Because I know when I first got saved, tried to do a lot of things, just didn't work. I couldn't walk in that stuff. But the Lord, he changes us a little bit at a time, a little bit of a little bit here, a little bit there.
And gives us a desire for higher things. You know what the brethren have been talking about today.
What have they said, you know?
There's nothing in the world that's going to meet the need of your heart.
Now you've heard that more than once, but it is true. It's really true. You know what does what the a verse that comes to my mind is is is when they were out fishing.
They are all fishing. They fished all night. They took nothing.
And the Lord came to them. And what did the Lord say? Have you any me?
I can't remember exactly, but he says they say no. We have labored all night and taken nothing.
That's a light lived for itself. That's what I think it is. Labored all night. Hey, you're going to labor down here. You're going to labor.
I fished all night and taken nothing.
And that's what it's like apart from Christ, apart from and what a wonderful thing to come to the Lord, you know.
You can be.
You can tell the Lord anything on your heart. Nobody else in the world, I don't think you can tell anything in your heart.
Because.
There are just things in there you wouldn't want to tell anybody.
But you can tell the Lord Jesus anything that's in your heart you can be honest, not that you're not honest if you don't something you just don't want to tell even the closest one to you. There's things in that heart that you just.
And as you get older, it doesn't get any better, but you can tell the Lord Jesus.
Everything that's in your heart. And you know what's a wonderful thing?
He's never going to show you the door.
He's never going to say, well, you're really too bad and you'll have to leave now.
The Lord Jesus says him that cometh to me, I will in no wise passed out. What a wonderful thing when you have that sense in your soul. What is it? That's that little children's hymn.
Umm, Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so. If you can rest your soul.
Well, you don't that that song is certainly based on scripture.
You gotta be careful resting on songs, but this is based on certainly on scripture. Yeah, I have loved thee.
You can rest your soul there on his.
Unchangeable love for you, Jesus Christ. The same yesterday.
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Today forever, I've changed a lot.
I have changed a lot, My wife has changed a lot.
We we change. Boy we were changeable. I change from day-to-day, Sometimes good mood, sometimes not so hot.
The way it is. But you know, the Lord loves me on the good days and the bad days. That's a wonderful thing. He's not going to cast you off.
What the Lord wants is.
Is one's.
They just come to work. Well, who were the ones who were the ones that had time for the war? That was the the harlots, the public hens, the the, the lower crust. Why is that? Well, because.
It says.
It says in Psalm 51.
The Psalm after David's sin, it says.
I think, well, I think in the target it reached, it's always thou 651 six. Behold, thou wilt have true in the inward parts.
Well, the Lord Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life in US. It says he that trusteth his own heart is a fool. Why is that? And that heart lies to you.
But the Lord Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.
Says earthly friends.
One day through the next day, grieve us.
But his friend will ne'er deceive us all how he loves.
What a thing I tell you, I think to find friendship, you know, it says in the last days perilous times shall come, and shall be lovers of their own selves.
To find a friend in this world that's really there's not a lot of friendship out there.
Well, I haven't seen it, and I think I'm seeing kind of the typical stuff, not a lot of friendship out out there in this world.
The place that I work.
They just want to use me I.
Know that they just want to use me. If I was unuseful to them, they'd get rid of me. It's the way it is.
It's not the way it is with the Lord Jesus.
We're unprofitable servants. Look how much he paid for us. We're unprofitable. He's never going to turn a profit on us. That's the way I look at it. But he loves us.
And to have what an amazing thing to have someone like this desire to be your friend.
Amazing. This is amazing. He desires your company.
While it's beyond understanding, isn't it certainly is to me. But it's true. It says it right here in the word.
Well, it's amazing, but it's true.
To have someone who has loved you and never will cast you off. Now look at we'll just look at one verse.
In well.
I want to say this one thing. This is a thing that.
I don't remember if I said this already or not, but.
But here it is.
It's a wonderful thing that the Christian life is not a thing of willpower.
I used to think it was. That's all I had. And if it's a thing of willpower.
Well then, why does the Lord choose such weaklings?
But it's not, it's not a thing of willpower.
Far and John one, it says.
As many as received them, Him to them gave thee power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name.
00:30:01
I'll read that verse.
I.
Verse 13 which were born not of blood.
Nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the Willis man, but of God.
You know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. That's where you got your start.
You didn't desire him, he desired you.
It wasn't your willpower that brought you to him. He brought you there.
It is in your willpower that's going to carry you through either.
It's as you abide in His presence.
Henry said. Henry Short said to us one time, he said.
He said, you know, and this is graphic. I like things that are graphic. It helps me to see things.
Well, he takes his dog. Whenever Henry comes to Cedar Rapids and has a has a meeting, he usually brings up his dog because he watches his dog. He's got kind of an ordinary dog. But anyway, he says he takes his dog for a walk and he says it passed by an old dirty sandwich and he said I got no interest in it, but my dog is very interested.
He says then we'll go along and I see a $5.00 bill and my dog has no interest in that. I am interested.
Well, the point is.
There in Philippians 3, Paul counts the things of this world, the good things, Councilman. But dung.
No interest. Just like that dirty sandwich, the sandwich that got stepped on out there. And Henry, we looked at it, no interest. That's the way Paul counted the glory of this world and the good things that he had. Do you think that Henry had to exercise his will a lot to not eat that sandwich?
No, Henry had no desire after. What a wonderful thing, isn't it? What a wonderful thing, Why, He had something much better. He went, He goes home, he's got clean stuff in the cupboards.
I hate sand in my teeth. Dogs don't mind it.
But God gives us a desire for better things, and then it's not an exercise of the will, but you come to him and say, Lord Jesus, change me on the inside. Do you want different desires?
Then I'm.
You have to look at. The good thing to do is to look at old people.
Different ones that have run their lives by different principles.
And see which one you want to end up like you. Ones that are young. Look at ones that have gone after the Lord.
None of us, all of us have problems, you know, like myself, father of four.
Well, a lot of times I have to hang my head. Not too good. Not a very good mark today. The Lord knows. Voice changing.
But.
OK, we'll read. We'll read one more verse.
Well, in Psalm 27.
What a nice verse by David.
Adam. When Adam sinned, the thought in his heart was tied.
High you know in your heart you have things you want to hide.
What we sense inside of ourselves makes us want to run and hide.
The Lord Jesus says, Come unto me.
All ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest, he says. You know you don't have to hide anymore because I know all about it and I paid the whole price and I love you and you.
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Come with me because I fitted you to be with me. Like the brother was saying, to share that glory. Well, we really can't enter into it, can we?
But.
We can have his companionship here in this scene. Look what David says.
Psalm 27, verse 4.
One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after.
That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
Isn't that wonderful? That is so sweet, he says. I just, David says, I think David says, hey, I just want to be near this one. What a wonderful thing. And that's how I believe. That's how a change occurs for the Christian. Did I read? Yeah. For the letter killer.
But the spirit giveth life. I am calm that you might have life. I need life today.
Religion deals with a dead man trying to do something to him. Never gets anything. That's true, but as soon as it's tested it falls on its face.
But when the heart, when the heart like David, David fell on his face too. But a righteous man falleth 7 times and rise up again. David fell on his face. But David knew something of God's heart, didn't he? And he ran right back to the Lord.
You know that song people need? The Lord, it says. Every day I pass them by. I can see it in their eyes.
Empty people filled with cares headed who knows where and says people need the Lord. Well it's true, He's the only one that can.
The only one that knows you through and through.
And still loves you.
I.
Of the things that were gained to him.
He had talked about that verse seven. What things were gain to me?
These I counted lost for Christ and the end of verse 8.
That I may win Christ, or that I may have Christ for my gain.
He was exchanging that which was gained to him based upon what he had done in keeping the law as best he could, His own righteousness. Now he had found Christ as his righteousness. Christ was his gain.
What a gain to have him instead of what we have attained through our own efforts. Again, he's comparing that which is infinitely better in Christ than the good things that he had as a law abiding Jew.
He had found Christ to be his being.
That I may know him.
The law doesn't present a person to it. It's a code of ethics. It's a moral code. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. But here in Christianity we have a person that I may know of him and the power of his resurrection. That power we're looking at that in Ephesians one, that power that lifts us into a new creation, power of dispersurrection, and He's the head of it, and we're brought into it now if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things are become new.
In in his his address delayed is he these things say the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, all those three things that he presents himself as in that last assembly. They didn't have any of those qualities. They didn't. They failed in all three of them. He was the Amen, the confirmation of all God's word.
00:40:09
He was the faithful and true witness. They were not and He was the beginning of that new creation in resurrection. And they were not displaying a new creation at all. They were living in this scene, setting their desires on this scene and very satisfied with themselves. I'm rich. Increased with goods that have need of nothing. That was the final state of the church. It was so bad, he said. I'm going to spew it out.
The exact opposite to what we have here where we have normal Christianity. Christ is everything. Christ is our game. To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings He even wanted to do. He wanted to be so identified with the Lord Jesus that even he could suffer as he did.
Atoning sufferings? Of course not, we can't take any part in that. But his sufferings from men?
Being made conformable unto his death, I remember.
Junior Gill speaking once years ago now at a conference and someone asked him, if you knew the Lord was coming tomorrow, what would you want to do today? He said I want to die. And that struck me as such a strange thing to say. And I think he had this in mind to be made conformable onto his death.
That is, he wanted to. Paul wanted to experience everything the Lord experienced.
He experienced that. He wanted to experience that too, and I think that's what Brother Gilman. He wanted to go through death as the Lord did, so that he could experience resurrection when the Lord came.
There are others, of course, that say, well I want to be here until the Lord comes, and that both of those are appropriate.
Interesting to see the contrast between verse seven and verse 8 and verse 7 when he compared those things that he enumerates in verse five and six to Christ. He says those things that were gained to me. I counted loss for Christ. That's past tense. And notice verse 8. Now sometimes we make a decision in life. Later on we regret it.
Did Paul, after having lost all that he lost, did he regret the decision he made? Verse eight Yeah, doubtless. And I count present tense all things, but lots. For what? For the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and you count them but done that I may win Christ.
The decision that he came to at that time to count all but loss.
Only confirmed as time went by. He lost everything. Paul, isn't that kind of a bad decision you made? You lost everything. Oh, but he said I've won something so much more supremely valuable. What is it, Paul? The knowledge, the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And young people, there is nothing that can compare to this treasure.
It's only when you get Christ in the sights like Paul did that you see this world for what it really is. And Paul looks at those things that he before valued and he says, what does he say of him? Dumb.
Do it. Get it out of here, get it as far away as possible. I don't want to have anything more to do with it. What created such a tremendous change in that man was to know the Lord Jesus.
And there's nothing that will satisfy your heart and mind. You can try those things.
This world has Doc. You're going to come up like Solomon did in the book of Ecclesiastes to the conclusion.
Vanity of vanity. All is vanity. There was a man that had everything, and what was it in his heart? Complete emptiness. Here's a man that's lost everything, and is he happy? The most happy man on earth. He's lost everything. Why is he so happy?
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Yes, Christ for his gain, the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. Dear young person, dear older brother and sister too. How it challenges our hearts. Christianity is that is to get to know the Lord, to get to know him in reality, to have fellowship with Him, to take time to be in His presence, to listen to His words, speaking to us, to pray. What tremendous privileges.
It is to walk in the company of the Son of God, to know Him. And we can stand here rather and exhort our young people about all the worldly ways and how wrong they are. But if they don't have something to fill their hearts, it's all lost time they're going to go after anyhow. But when their hearts are full of the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord.
Brethren, those things are going to drop off. May the Lord help us to show, as the apostle Paul showed, the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus is Lord. I often think of the apostle Paul standing there before agrippa dis forcing, and there was a grip in all his finery, all the world's glory with his wife.
And there was a man with a chain around me.
Who was the happiest man in that courtroom? It was the man with the chain. And he could say, and honestly say I would to God, that not only thou, but all that cure me to stay worth such as I am these bonds.
Dear brethren and sister, what's going to be attractive in your life and testimony is Christ reflected in you. It's in the measure that you and I are occupied with that man in the glory we're going to show to others.
The power of Christianity is positive. It's not negative, first of all, but it's positive and it's important that we get a hold of that. Here are young people. It's not taking away. It's not a set of rules and regulations. You can't do this and you can't do that, but it's when you have Christ for your gain, those things are not going to be interesting to you at all any longer.
I have a question.
Just touched on briefly by Chuck that I'd like to hear something about. In verse 10, it says that I may know the power of his resurrection. Now, do we think of that in the sense that this is what we anticipate because they're resurrected from the dead, but those of us that are alive and remain will be caught up. But that's a form of resurrection because we're taken out of the scene death. And so, you know, thinking too of the word, that was a brother who was asked said that he wanted to die the day before the Lord came to call him.
So I've thought about this, I can understand that I may know him. I mean to know the Lord is to know his person, to know everything that he did and and he is such, you know, we, we don't feel that we can take that in. It's so bad and so great. He's so wonderful. A lot of means that I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings too, that we're willing to take our place with him, the one who was rejected and and to feel that rejection ourselves if we walk faithfully.
But I've never been quite clear as to how I understand the power that I may know.
The power of this resurrection is apart from the coming days.
So I was just wondering if anybody had a thought about that.
My understanding of it has always been that there was nothing, nothing that was a greater demonstration of the power of God.
Than in the raising up of the Lord Jesus.
Who, when he went into death, has paid for the sins of every believer from Adam on?
So it comes, and the weight of that sin on him, with him going into debt.
00:50:07
The mighty power of God ever accepted that the work of the cross to pay for every sin and blotting it out from the sight of God forever, That power that could raise him up, we're going to experience it ourselves.
Whether dead or alive.
That's what I follow to understand.
And as well as referred to in Ephesians chapter one, I think 2 is the power of the what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards usward who believes in other words, it's working towards this even here and now. The life we have in Christ now is life and resurrection.
That it's connected here, being made conformable unto his death. And so you cannot prove in a practical way the power of resurrection unless you know what it means to be made conformable to his death.
Resurrection follows death, and so in a practical way we prove the power of his resurrection in in life today, even when we are made conformable to his death.
It's always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.
That right?
Good.
His resurrection took him out of this world into another, and it has done the same with us. He prayed in John 17. They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. We've been taken out of this scene and introduced into a new scene. That's the resurrection is done, isn't it? And we're going to enjoy that even now, before it reaches our bodies.
Would you have a demonstration of that? Shadrach Mikhach and abetting those there an answer they give and Daniel 3.
Verse 17.
I'll read verse 16 and 17.
And the Bendigo answered and said to the king, Old Nebuchadnezzar, we are not serviced to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and we will deliver us out of thy hand, O king.
They believed in resurrection.
We're speaking about learning more and more that I may know him, Paul saying here toward the end of his life. And we could say, well, Paul, don't you know the Lord? Oh, he did, but he longed to know more and more. I often put it this way, that when we get to the glory, the Father is going to say to us individually, as it were, I'm going to tell you.
What my Son has done for me, and it's going to take a long time, it's going to take eternity and so through the eternal ages.
There the Father is going to relate to us what the Father of the Lord Jesus in his life and in His death has done for Him, not for us, but for him. That's the communion that He desires that we would be having even now.
To know that also to go back to that other thought, looking at 2nd Corinthians 1, to know the power of his resurrection enables 1 to go through suffering and persecution and even death. Notice what Paul says in verse 9, verse eight. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we're we were pressed out of measure above strength and so much that we despaired even of life.
00:55:10
We thought we were going to die, he said, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises to death. Isn't that similar to the power of his resurrection, the God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great to death? He didn't die. He didn't. He wasn't raised. He was delivered from that gasoline and dust, delivered in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. He did deliver us. He does deliver us, and he will deliver us.
He also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us He did not die. He was kept here for the good and blessing of the Saints, and they prayed to that end, and their prayer was answered. So he says that for the gift is sowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. They could rejoice if Paul was scared that he was still with them, to to help them and to minister to them. He didn't die, but he.
He looked past death into resurrection should he go through death and that enabled him to to go through that to God's glory. And how many of the things that have given their lives, I'm sure they they looked on in the power of resurrection to that coming day when they will, when that will all be reversed and God will vindicate them in that day.
And that's what we get in verse 11, isn't it, of our chapter.
If by any means I might obtain as the resurrection of the dead.
And then he goes on to Savage 12, not as though I had already estimated were already perfect, but I follow after it that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. So he's, it's something he's pursuing here. It's a race that he's running and he hasn't attained it yet, but it's an object before his soul. And like it's been said, the object that we have before us forms our character.
Forms our lives and it's extremely important for us all to have a right object. And we live in such a distracting world, brethren, that I think it's important for us to have signs when we sit down and reflect on what is the object we are pursuing in life.
That even as an older person we need to do that from time to time and I just like to really impress on our young people the importance of.
Having the right object in life, I see so many young people seems like when they get up out of high school and think about college and a career, that a career is almost an objective before him. They say if that's your overall objective, you're going to be disappointed. It's not really a worthwhile objective for a Christian. We all have to do some kind of work in life saying that there's anything wrong with that. There's a lot of honest ways.
To earn a living. But that should not be your objective. Your objective should be like Paul brings before us here, something completely beyond this world, something in the glory. And so he says, I haven't attained it yet. Brethren, I'm pursuing it. And he says I follow after that. I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended in Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before I press towards the mark for the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, it's the picture of an athlete. He's getting down towards the end.
And there is the goal in front of him. The prize is before him. Nothing else around makes too much difference. He's straining. All his energies are putting in to get to that goal.
There's single heartedness in this example. We have this here, this one thing I do. Like I say, we live in a distracting world and we get one thing before us and then we think of another thing and another thing, and we get all distracted.
It's important if you're running a race, to know where you're going and to concentrate on it. And brethren, it's important to concentrate on the goal that's set before us. This is the Christian's goal. This is the only goal that is worthy of a Christian. All other goals should be related to this goal, this overall objective in our lives. I think it's so important, like I said.
01:00:19
It's our objective that forms our character.
And if you get your goals set right right from the beginning of your life, it makes your life such, so much more meaningful. So many young people in life that just don't seem to have any meaning in their life. Why not? They don't have any goals. They don't have any objective.
Consider the objective I challenge you, young person. Consider the objective that was before the soul of the apostle Paul.
Notice what it is the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. No greater prize to be desired in this life.
You know This is why it.
I, I work with, with electronic equipment measurement something and the stuff gets out of calibration and you can't trust what it tells you anymore. And you know when we come together to the prayer meeting, the reading meetings.
Kind of like a recalibration.
We get brought back because, well, as we walk in the world, our feet get dirty and we have great fantasies towards the world anyway, and so we we talk with the world.
And those thoughts get there long enough they start to make more and more sense.
So we need to be recalibrating.
We need to be with our brethren at prayer, music, you know, you come and you need your feet washed, you need heavenly things put before you. And then you have. Then you say, Oh yeah, the Lord compared us to sheep. Well, I'm not, I'm not a farmer. I've never been one. Don't know much. Some of the guys at work, they have their farmers, they have sheep, and I get a testimonial.
Once in a while they are still. That's what they tell me.
Well, the Lord compared us to sheep for a reason, and we need to be brought back often because we get off the path so fast.
So I saw a party to meet with your brazen to be at the prayer meeting at the.
Reading certainly the breaking of bread, but you really need them all.
To be brought back because you may have a big goal out in front of you in education, a job, a home we're talking about, you know what you would think would be the finer thing, but.
And and things that.
Well, things that, you know, I, I, I hesitate to say need. I certainly have a lot more than I need.
But we need that recalibration to be brought back and say, Oh yeah, now I remember what life is all about.
Because we get off the path, so we.
Of a recalibration. I'll give an example of it in verse 11. I'm going to read it in Mr. Darby's translation. Notice the difference, if any way. I arrive at the resurrection not of the dead, but from among the dead.
In fact, in the original it's it's even stronger. It's out from among the dead. Now that's the Christian resurrection. When we rise, when the Lord comes for us, we will rise. The rest of the dead will remain in the ground. They will not rise. Resurrection of the dead suggests that all go. And that's not the teaching of Scripture. He's talking about the Christian resurrection. He wants to arrive at the resurrection out from among the dead. And then again in verse 14, I pursue looking towards the goal for the prize. Notice the difference now of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Yes, it's a high calling as the King James gives it, but that's not the force of it. It's not just that it's a high calling. It is that, but it's a calling on high. And the calling is to lead us into that scene on high where Christ is and to be associated with Him there. One day we're going to be with Him there. So it's the calling on time, and it's the resurrection from among the dead. That's one of the benefits of a reading we can correct.
01:05:16
Some errors. The translation we use isn't perfect. None is perfect, even Mr. Darby's isn't perfect, but it's certainly an excellent one. And I would strongly recommend the young Brethren especially to read it and to compare translations because it's it's an excellent health and supplement to what we normally use. I just like to add this one point I certainly agree with.
All that's been said.
Got to make it a little simpler for the younger ones. I put it this way, the only thing that weakens me in my Christian life are the things that I willingly.
Willingly.
Put first.
The things that I do willingly, that those are the only things or putting it cleaner. The only thing that weakens me is the sins which I allow in my life. Now they may not be serious but put anything to wire or some rod at the Lord's table. I believe only for one reason and that is a person wants to do something more than to.
Be at the Lord's ****. Let's say if I go to the Lord's table, I have to give up. This, this, this.
And I don't want to well, I believe that our will is what weakens us and the the the verse that comes before me is the first Epistle of John chapter 5, verse 20. They loved if our heart condemn us not if I don't have a bad good conscience about anything I'm doing, then have a confidence toward God and whatever we ask, we receive.
I believe this is what weakens us and Satan encourages us to do what we want. That's the biggest sin of all, is it? Just to do what I want them? That, I believe is what weakens us and weakens the testimony to.
Just one thought before we finish.
An artist or that is a musical artist or otherwise, in order to achieve his goal will spend many hours a day.
Actually, on the piano, or whatever it may be, he has an earnest desire within him to attain unto.
A goal of perfection or what? As near as possible.
And the objects of the heart of the Saints of God, who is walking in the spirit and not fulfilling the desires of the flesh, who really, really wants to be happy?
And who really, really seeks to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, who died in their place and bore in his body all of the wrath of God against his sins?
If that person desires Christ, the beginning is.
What was read what Mike read in John chapter one Being born again, not of the will of the flesh.
Nor of the will of man.
But of God, that's the beginning. And then I have a desire within me to have peace with God, because numerous doesn't bring peace, but rather a troubled conscience, as we have in the 7th chapter of Romans.
A desire to do good, but not the power. Then they see Calvary and the the suffering was over.
At 3:00 in the afternoon that Friday. So they see Christ bearing his judgment entirely. Now then, I love that man who died for me, and it is my desire to walk with Him. There is a verse in the first Epistle of John, I think it's 314, which says we know that we have passed from death unto life.
01:10:03
Born again.
Because we love the president.
One of the very, very important things in a believers life is to feed that new man.
And to share in the association of the other Saints we know we've passed and death in the life because we love the brethren. I go to mean.
For one reason, because I love the brethren, I love to be with God's people and I I know the Lord Jesus is present too. So I seek to learn of him and to know him better and to know his people better and share.
The things that they can give me and we gain one with another when we are together. So when I see a brother or sister who is indifferent towards the meetings and doesn't really care, especially whether they go or not, there are other things to them more important. I wonder where they are spiritually.
When he claws with him 252 five oh.
One Darius cares our hearts retire those deep and finalists their desire. We've now to please but one him before whom each knee shall bow with him.
All our business now and those that are his own.
250.
From various kids are.
Our heart.
Of our divine grief and.
In love.
More than ever.
More from.
Believing.
Fall downs breathing on our earth.
Our blessing God and our Father and doing this of our hearts and Thanksgiving this afternoon and the time that we could have together to read my word and be reminded to have all this desire our heart and we do pray that we mind each one of us have the right object. We know we all have an object for our heart and we pray that we might have that right object and so we commend this through the and thankfully.
Truth that we've been able to take in this afternoon.
With a friend and we make any good to our minds always a tremendous feeling and we just find linings or Jesus, you know.
Philippians 3:13-21
Reading
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A free verse 13.
Brother and I can't not myself who have apprehended, but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before, I press for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be less minded, and if in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless.
Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us. For an example for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory.
Is in their shame.
Who mind earthly things, for our conversation is in heaven, from whence we also for whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that are maybe fashion like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Apprehend means to come up. To comprehend means to involve the whole thing and have a complete understanding. But it's remarkable that Paul uses that term.
The great Apostle had before him, as before us, an unattainable object, God.
Has set before us that Blessed One not to discourage us, but it is unplumbable. We cannot ever come to the end of learning of Christ. So he said. I haven't even apprehended, I haven't got approached. So if he hasn't, I'll encouraging it is for us to endeavor to learn more of that Blessed One.
He also gives some practical advice, doesn't he? There is.
Too much of A tendency for people who look back and think about their failures. They should have done this. I should have done that. And oftentimes it's things that cannot be changed. They have happened and they are. And so he makes it very plain. He says, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. And that is really such a wonderful encouragement.
Because, and we know our God is one who is forgiving. He knows our hearts. If we do fail or slip or come short in some way, and we feel it, but we confess it and we're truly sorry about it, He knows.
And so this, I think it's just a wonderful encouraging word that don't dwell on that which is past, which you can't change, which is done, but to reach forth unto those things which are before and and our desire is to please the Lord and to walk according to His will. He makes it very plain he'll help it, even the good things that we might be proud of and look back and say that's pretty good.
We were to forget those things, too.
But there's progress here too, isn't there? It's not. It's not just standing still either. We don't stand still in our Christian pathway. It's forgetting and it's going on at the same time because they can't. We we don't just stand still and be stagnant. Sometimes what Bob was saying in his address there was perhaps sometimes we think that that's the way it is. There's we're stagnant in our souls sometimes you know and and that's why there's no there's no.
00:05:20
Perhaps why there's no praise.
In our assembly meetings, perhaps this little garden of our souls that we have been hearing about the garden down here, the Lord says it's my garden and he allows the north wind to come in some time and stir it up. I know at home, and anyone who has a garden knows the importance of killing that garden. You don't just let it grow, you don't just let it sit still because it'll grow. It'll grow up with weed and then it becomes unfruitful and non productive.
And so the garden of our hearts.
Sometimes needs to be stirred up.
Allow the Word of God to do its plowing.
And then maybe, if we allow this, and took care of those weeds brethren, that grow in there, sometimes, that there be a little more of that reaching forth unto him, and perhaps a little more praise and adoration from our own lips, and little more help in the assembly.
Is that not the reason why sometimes there seems to be stagnant in our own souls? It's not just we don't look around and say so and so it hasn't been walking with the Lord and that's why he's keeping his mouth shut. How about my own soul?
And so we need to allow the word of God to flow us up to there might be.
That S wind and that north wind that will blow those. Those.
The flower, the smell of those of that that fruit in the garden over the wall that others might smell it. Dude, I think we get that in that little verse there and strongest Solomon that someone referred to.
Reaching forward would be to that moment when the Father will receive us into the home, into his home of love, and he will recite to us all the wonders of the glorious person of his son and what he's done for him.
That is what the apostle was longing for. There's another verse that says in this week, Groan. I think it's Mr. Darby that points out that we don't groan because this is a oh, a hard life and but the day is going to come and it's going to be wonderful to be there. That isn't the thought so much as it grown to be enjoying what he's going to enjoy there in the presence of the Lord.
This is their ultimate brethren for us to find ourselves forever in the presence of the Lord that is going to just fill our vision and our thoughts and our hearts with overflowing forever.
The person of Christ.
Spiritual energy is called for here, isn't it? Verse 13. It speaks about reaching forth to saluted unto those things which are before, and so being concerned that our walk and our ways are in accordance with the Lord's mind. But then there was a clear goal, the target might say. In verse 14 I pressed toward the mark.
For the prize. And of course we all know it should be the calling on high of God and Christ Jesus. And so that is really the end, you might say, of this earthly path. That's what we're headed for.
If there is a temptation or an inclination to do this or that which isn't in keeping with that thought of the calling on high, the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Then we might well hesitate. Why am I putting any energy into that? Why am I occupying myself? I can remember when I was first saved in the example was given. I'm sure we've all heard it about.
You know, if there's an activity in which you might be occupied, would you be happy about that if the Lord came at that instant that you are occupied in that particular activity?
And that, to me, has the sense of verse 14. I pressed toward the mark of the prize of the calling on high that no matter what I'm engaged with, I have a clear mind about it. That it is something that the Lord would have me be involved with. And then if He gives a shot when I'm involved with it, I have no regrets, no sorrows.
00:10:21
And that, you know, we often talk about the young people. When do you stop being a young person? Not.
Sort of a very slow transition, so sometimes I like to think of myself as a young people. But nevertheless, if your friends say let's go do this or do that, then you're not certain. Should I do that or not? Just ask yourself the question, would I be happy to be involved with that at the time the Lord comes to catch me up?
No, I was thinking of the word in in relationship to this verse of appetite.
The wonderful thing if we can have an appetite.
You know when.
Well, I said to a brother that there was some little difficulty up at the lunch table and and to get around to the desserts, and there were people coming this way. But he made his way through there. And I said to him, love, find a way, huh? But he had an appetite to get there. And it's a wonderful thing. If we can have an appetite to things, we bought it. And you know, we can lose our appetite like even some food.
You know, and sometimes maybe I'm I'm not very hungry, but I might come home, maybe I've been stressed out at work or something or I've I'm upset or something. I come home and I start to smell food, you know, and then I start to get a little more appetite and I I my thoughts start to go in that direction. But.
So we need to be stirred up in a wonderful It's wonderful if we can have appetite to.
To want those things.
I think it's nice to see in this verse 14 that calling on high.
Surprised at calling them on high of God. In Christ Jesus is certainly includes the coming of the Lord. I like to think about it is what we are called to. We're called to a heavenly portion. It's the whole thing before our souls. And it's in contrast later on in this chapter with what we have in verse 19. Those who mind earthly things. Why do they mind earthly things? Because they don't have heaven before them.
But no, brethren, if we could just get a glimpse.
More of the vastness of the heavenly calling at his heart. Earth would necessarily fade into oblivion in our minds. And that's what had happened to the Apostle Paul when he got a glimpse of glory. What was earth? He was a ruined man as far as any earthly objective was concerned. He there was no use for him down here. And so they put him in prison that there's no use for us in that man. He's too heavily mine.
And that's what forms our character. It draws us that prize of the heavenly calling, the calling on high of God and grace, Jesus, I often say that's not necessarily that there's anything wrong with a lot of things down here in this world. People ask what's wrong with that?
It's not necessarily that there's anything wrong with it, but if it doesn't help you get to that price, there's something definitely.
That hinders you and you've got to get rid of those hindrances if you want to win that prize.
What's wrong if a man is going to run a race?
Say he's going to run 100 yard dash and somebody steps up to him just at the last minute and offers him a bag of gold. Here's 10 kilos of gold.
Anything wrong? So that goes nothing wrong with it in itself, But if he wants to win that race, he's going to throw that bag of gold aside just as fast as you would throw aside a bag of garbage. Why? Because it would be a definite hindrance to him in winning the prize. And that's the point, brother, to have heaven before us. A lot of things done in this world are not wrong in themselves.
00:15:16
But they definitely hinder a person that has heaven before him. And you have to evaluate things down here constantly in the light of the prize of that high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Extremely important if we want to run the race like Paul Randall.
It's not so much the coming of the Lord for us.
That is going to lift us up into the glory, but it's what's going to happen after. And so Paul speaks of the crown of righteousness to them that love, not the rapture, but love, is a fury. That's the day. That's the day of the Lord when the Lord then is going to.
Dispense to us rewards for our service and becomes as mentioned, they we replace the angels in the Millennium.
And according to our faithfulness down here, so will be our work in the Millennium. So the Lords, the crown of righteousness, is for them that love is appearing.
One author.
I enjoy about the appearing. Is that where the Lord today his name is used as a byword or first word and he's mocked and rejected in this world?
That is appearing before all of creation. He'll have his rightful place. That's what thrilled my soul to think, that every knee is going to bow to him, and there'll be no question he will not be rejected. He'll be recognized, if by sheer power, but nevertheless he'll have his.
Full place throughout all creation and I just think that's wonderful.
Not to change what you said, brother N, but when I think of the appearing, I just think of our precious savior and how men use his name just as a byword. Commonly they make jokes and all those things that hurt each one of us when we hear them. But in that coming day, he'll have his rightful place.
We wait for the rapture, but we can watch for the appearance, 13th of Hebrews says. And so neglect not himself. The gathering of yourselves together is the manner of summons, but.
Watch for His appearing. And so we watch it. We can see that approaching. We can't see the Rapture, because there's nothing to be fulfilled before the Rapture, before the Lord comes for us, but in the interval after that, and.
Before he appears, those things are beginning to shape up now, particularly in the Middle East, so we can see those that day approaching.
Captive in Rome?
But sometimes change to a soldier.
Chapter one, verse 23 says I'm in a straight betwixt 2 having a desire to be part of the be with Christ, which is far better.
What? What does he have here?
For getting those things that are behind, maybe you know, he could say forth only I had made the spirit voice and not thrown up in Jerusalem.
And forgetting everything from people.
There's someone before it.
There can be greetings from Caesar's household because he's been there, not.
Christ the proportion of the soul of.
Pressing towards a mark.
But imprisonment?
There are further and today that are Christmas.
Depressing towards the North.
Whether we've made mistakes in the past or.
Have gained some victories.
This passage says to forget those things which are behind, not dwell upon the past. We can't change the past, but we can go on today for him. And the only way we can do that anytime we we take inventory of ourselves and say how am I doing?
00:20:17
That's not what this chapter's teaching it's It's teaching not to be occupied with ourselves at all, but with Christ is the object before our souls.
And we and Paul, even Paul, the great apostle Paul, he says I'm not having to pay him the prize. I'm not perfected yet.
And that won't be until the Lord comes, when we receive our resurrection bodies and we're home. There He's He's laid hold upon us, apprehended us, got the possession of us for the glory. And so he wanted to take possession of the very things that He'd been laid hold of by God for.
He wanted to enter into these things God has laid hold upon us for glory. Not to enjoy the earth and this scene down here, but we're going to be enjoying the heavenly things, and he wants us to. He says, I want to enjoy them now. And the way he can do that is by having Christ before his soul. And so he says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. That's the perfect mind.
Of Philippians 3 is to have Christ and Christ alone before the soul and not be occupied with ourselves. Whether it's good self or bad self, let's be occupied with him altogether.
Verse the theme, we get a wonderful.
Encouraging words, don't we? Well, first it says, let us therefore as many as be perfect, mature. The thus minded. That is the same mind as Paul expressed here his object, and if in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. It's that last expression, I think it's so encouraging because I'm sure we all feel that. I just wish I understood better. I wish I was clear about this. I wish that I could.
Fulfill what Scripture is bringing before me, but here what a word of encouragement.
If in anything ye be otherwise minded other than what we have, just happy for us.
God shall reveal even this unto you.
It's not a wonderful word for my God, he he's saying. I realize you've got limitations, but I realize you may not always understand fully.
But I'll reveal it for you.
In that connection I was very fond of straightforward into Luke 818 because that carries that same thought, I think. **** we don't learn by studying the scriptures, we learn by walking in the truth that we have already learned. That verse says to him that has shall more be given.
It's not how much everyone of us here knows about the scriptures that makes us happy.
It's how much I'm walking in, the truth that I do have and then.
The spirit of God is going to teach me more, but I don't learn intellectually.
Knowledge puffs up.
So it's a wonderful thing. The younger ones here, I'd say, well, I don't know very much. It doesn't matter if you're living what you have already learned from in your home or at the assembly wherever, If you're living that God is going to teach you more. And then the warning is, if I'm not walking in, what I do have already been taught.
God is going to take away for me that which I seemed to have and I believe beloved ones that we've seen in the last five years, those things happening as a warning to us. We lose that. Not to lose it. He takes it away, takes our discernment away. So the great thing is to be not trying to learn more, but to live what we have learned when we go home now from these meetings.
It's so important because the Spirit of God teaches each one of us a little bit differently of what we have heard. Just what you need, you're going to remember if you concentrate on that and walk in that, you're going to be blessed and he's going to the Spirit of God is going to teach you more.
00:25:19
There seems to be a contradiction that says in verse 12, not as though I had already attained attained the prizes, the thought either were already perfect, he said. I'm not perfect yet as long as we're in this body of flesh and blood, we're not perfect. We have not arrived at the resurrection state yet and.
He's pursuing. He's following after.
And and seeking to be.
In conformity with the truth of Christianity and all that's been brought before him. But then in verse 15 he says, let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded. So the word perfect is used in two different senses. The one, the first sense is we won't be perfect until we're with him and like him and fully conformed to his image in the glory after the resurrection. When he comes, he won't be perfect till then. But then there's the sense in which we are mature.
Full grown in the things of God and we understand the true character of Christian truth and so we're perfect in that sense. We're not babes tossed and cared about by every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cutting craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. We're not we're not babes to be tossed about by these doctrines that are out there. We understand the truth of God and the the what is true Christianity. And so we're not diverted and.
And loved and to sleep, and attracted by these false things that are out there. And that's the thought of being perfect in verse 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded. And if you be any otherwise minded, that is, you have not achieved through the state that maybe some others have of understanding all the truth, he says, God will reveal even this unto you, but in the measure in which we do understand.
And I understand, and you understand the measure in which we can share our understanding of truth. Together we have fellowship, and that's where he says.
Where to verse 16. Nevertheless, where two we have already attained.
In whatever measure we've obtained to the knowledge of the truth.
He says let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
And if there is a measure in which we haven't attained, God will reveal it to us. But we can.
We can. I think we sometimes injure souls by presenting church truth to them too soon. They're not up to it, and they need to be established soundly in the truth of the gospel. For instance, if a person is not sure of eternal security, it's folly. Talk about church truth. To such a person, he has to be established as to his own soul salvation. Be sure that first one of the letters of Mr. Darby that I read when he was in Kennedy said he'd been laboring 3 months and he hadn't touched church proof yet. They needed to be established in the truth of the gospel first.
And once that is done, then we can go on to these more these other truths which are more of a collective character. But we need to be established first of all as to our individual standing before him and our walk before in his individuals that comes first and then the collective follows upon it.
I was thinking of a verse in thinking of Peter and his tremendous boldness after they were all in that upper room afraid. But the tremendous boldness that Peter had after that after the spirit of audience come and in what happened into the room and but in a thing you have a verse in Acts 413 it says now when they.
Saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceive that they were unlearned and ignorant man. They marvel, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Well, this is really sweet to my soul because the power and the boldness that they got was because they had spent time with the Lord, and I'm not much of A reader.
00:30:02
I don't like to read. I'm kind of antsy. I like to move around a lot. It's hard for me to sit in these meetings, but.
You know in our in our thoughts through the day, you know where do our thoughts go and.
As we make decisions, you know, the Lord knows with us all day. He's there all the time, His eyes upon us as we were hearing what a wonderful thing you know and.
To turn to him to say a little word to him. And here, here, this boldness, it says they took knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus. That's where we got, that's where we get our boldness. You know, you have a word from the Lord to go. Certainly we that gives you bold. And the Lord wants me to do this. I remember a brother asked he wanted me to do something. I said, no, I know I can't do that. I got, I got to go do that. He says, well, why you got to do that? He says, Well, the Lord wants me to do that. I had a word. He said, well, you got a word from the Home Office and stuff like that.
So when you have a word from the Lord to do something, doesn't act strengthen us and give us coldness to go forward?
That's a little borne out by verse 16, isn't it? Nevertheless, where to? We have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. This is the point that our brother Norman was bringing before us, that we don't all have the same light, the same understanding. But if we walk according to what the Lord has revealed to us, why then the Lord can lead us on? We have the same life bringeth, life and life accepted. Or light walked and bring in more light. And that that's really what the Lord gives us. He gives us enough, you might say, for the next step that we take.
And and we don't learn everything all at once. And I think it connects very closely with verse 15 because.
If in anything he'd be otherwise minded, God shower you feel even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. And others observe for my own self in reading Philippians, I I believe we we well recognize the the major themes of Philippians, and enjoy them about Christ. But one of the things that has struck me.
In reading it and it never changes.
Is that it's quite a word to us as going on as being 1 minded 1. Mindedness is touched pretty heavily in this epistle. For example, if you look back at the end of chapter one and verse 27, it says that the end of verse 27 that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast and one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
Then we well know the portion of chapter 2 where starting at verse 5, where we often read it at the breaking of bread. Let this mind be in you and which was in Christ Jesus. And we know that portion so well. What was that line? Here the Son of God in the form of man took a low place.
And it's right in keeping with the verses that precede it, where we are to esteem others better than themselves, better than ourselves. So let this mind be you and you will be 1 minded. And so we have that here in the first in the chapter where we're reading it says, nevertheless, we're do we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mine the same thing. It's a wonderful thing when we have, you know, issues that have to be dealt with in the assembly.
Now I'm convinced that the Lord doesn't make the assembly path easy.
There are no set rules as we know. Every time an issue comes up and has to be considered As for an assembly action, there's always something a little different about it and the Lord would have His cast on Him so He can guide him. We just don't have a formula answer as to what you do in this case or that case well when you have this issue before the assembly which is composed of individual believers.
And you want to act with the mind of God. You want one mind. You want one mind. If you don't have one mind and you have strong differences in the assembly that leads to discord, it's dishonouring to the Lord. So we have wonderful teaching in this book. I just suggest that is another theme you might be looking looking at is 1 mindedness.
00:35:04
And that mind? That one mind that we wanted. Whose mind? The Lord's mind.
But it would keep us on our knees. It's not easy. It's not easy. What this chapter is teaching as to the one mind is there's two ways of achieving 1 mindedness and that is we differ and we compromise. I'll give a little and you give a little and I'll meet you halfway. And that's not God's way. That's the that's the principle of compromise and.
The way that one mindedness is arrived at according to this chapter and according to all the Scripture, is that we all arrive at the mind of Christ and the one that has attained to it. If someone hasn't attained to it in whatever measure he has attained, you can have fellowship with that person, but God will reveal to the other one, or to yourself, that you're the deficient one. His mind but.
To deal with the truth of God on the principle of compromise is an unmitigated evil. We cannot deal with God's truth that way. We cannot compromise His truth in order to have one mindedness. And this is what is happening in Christendom. They are pursuing a path of unity based on giving up truth, and that's a wicked principle, and it's an evil thing. It's the ecumenical principle of attaining unity without.
Having the mind of God in the matter, and my mind is worth a straw. Neither is yours. We have to have the mind of Christ, and if we all have that, then we will achieve it and do it in a way which is according to the truth of God. But it's so important that the principle of compromise in order to achieve 1 mindedness and unity is a wicked thing. And that's the trouble with ecumenical unity.
It's achieving oneness at the expense of the truth.
And these all of these false movements that are around about in Christendom, that's the cardinal sin of each one of them is that it's not based on the truth of God, but it's based upon a unity of man's making and giving up truth in order to attain that unity. That's never a God.
To help, I think to see in the 15th verse the sovereignty of God. You look at it in a Broadway, you'll see it, the sovereignty God doing the work. But the 16th verse is man's responsibility, our side of using verse 15.
What God has the things that I don't probably will teach, but he's the teacher for the 16th, is to go on now using what the 15 first teaches us.
I think it's good to leave time with souls to grow. You can't force a person to grow up faster, to grow in the way that they will grow. Or a child grows up and it's imperceptible from day-to-day how much he's growing. But growth is something. If the spirit of God is working, it will take place. God will reveal this unto you. We don't have to force issues.
With people.
Them with the Lord. And like you say, Jack, it's not agreeing to disagree. That's the principle that you're speaking about. Don't say, well, you see it that way and I'll see it this way, but we'll just agree to disagree. No, we don't say that. Say, well, let's wait on the Lord about it. Maybe I have some growing to do. Maybe you do too. Maybe we both do. And God is going to reveal the difference. The spirit of God. That's teaching you and teaching me. One thing is certain.
We're going to come to a point of complete, like, mindedness. Somewhere along the way. It's waiting on the Lord about it.
1St Corinthians 110 That I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that there be no divisions amongst you, but that you be perfectly united together in the same judgment and the same opinion, there is what God sets before attainable.
00:40:02
They have one mind.
Philippians 25 says, let this mind be in you, the last verses of 1 Corinthians. One says we have the mind of Christ. One is the sovereignty and the others responsibility. But it's so good, I believe, for us all to be seeing our standing before God rather than to be thinking about our state. Our state is before us. We just go down.
Get depressed. But if we see our perfect standing and price up comes my statement.
I like to suggest too that when there are differences.
In the assembly and understanding or acting, an element involved often is pride.
That one will prevail over another, or one feels that their view is superior to another. And then really, if there is humility in seeking the war, not anything to do with me, but just to know who's fine, then progress can be made. So pride is something that dies very slowly within us.
OK.
Well, in verse 17 and the apostle says, brethren, the following followers together of me and mark them which walk. So she have us for an image.
Example it's easier. I can't say end sample but X sample but isn't that wonderful. Who else could?
Say that about themselves because of the man of God.
Followers of me, I mean, it would seem like we're just talking about pride, that this would be an absolute arrogance. But here is a man clearly chosen of God, manifesting God's mind for us, and he can say with all confidence he followers together of me and mark them which walk so she have us for an example.
And then he goes on and says that many walk of whom I have told you often, and I'll tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, and things are no different today than they were then.
As we read the scriptures and we compare it to our lives at this day that when it comes down to the issues of men and their motives, their ambitions.
That nothing has changed. Technology may have changed in our modern life, but human nature hasn't changed a bit.
The last part of that 16th verse 5th.
18th verse is not referring to believers but unbelievers.
But it's interesting the way it puts it, isn't it? It didn't say enemies of Christ, Enemies of the cross of Christ.
Because the cross is what separates us from the world. There's the crop in between.
And.
To walk in such a way as to impractical and practicality be an enemy of the process of right.
Yes, there is.
Practically.
He's not actually his soul to be saved, but he's acting.
Wrongly.
Do you agree with that? Yes, that's right, mine. Because it's not. As pointed out, it's not enemies of Christ, but enemies of the Cross. That is, if I don't pick up, if I'm not willing to walk in separation and the cross is that which separates me from the world. If I'm not ready to walk and willing to walk in that on as it were casting my lot in with the world and and for all practical purposes the world looks at me and and sees no difference. In that sense I believe I'm an enemy of the cross.
But in verse 19, I think he makes it quite clear that the ones he's talking about are not the Lords whose end is destruction.
Whose God is their belly? Whose glory is in their shame? Who mind earth? Who thinks? You wouldn't say that of a true believer.
But we may be walking in such a way that that's the way it looks.
This is a word for the conscience. So is it not I I look at that and I say, wow, if that's really what it's saying, if that's the end of those, this is really what it looks like. I don't want to be a part of that. And so I I realized that this is what I'd be doing. I'd be walking.
00:45:09
In the same way that those have been walking who are going to be, they were going to carry. So what's the word to my conscience? I know I'm not going to perish, but I'm giving that idea that I'm casting my lot in with him and I'm ashamed of the cross of Christ.
I thought a helpful illustration was.
Might get on a road out here and ask where does this road lead? And the answer might be this road leads you to Chicago. That's the end of this road. And so you might be on that road, but that doesn't mean you will go all the way to Chicago. You may get off and I think the point is that a true Christian may be involved in some of this minding earthly things is a plenty of US who get involved in truthfully things to the point I'm afraid we have to.
Recognize, brethren, that we mind earthly things sometimes, but that's not the character of the Christian.
That's not the road for the Christian. It's to get off of that road because the end of that road is destruction. And so it's to recognize where does this weed, it leads to destruction. This is not my way. This is not my Rd. I'm going to have to change things here and to recognize it and to get off of it. True Christian can't be destroyed.
There's a class that's mentioned in Revelation quite quite often, and I think the first mention is to Philadelphia, and I'm going to read it. It's in Revelation 310 because I was kept the word of my patience. I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world. It's going to come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Now, I'm not going to refer to all those dimensions of them that dwell upon the earth, but in the 13th chapter.
Verse 5.
It says.
And that was given unto him, that is this this beast a mouse, speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue 42 months. And he opened his mouth, and blasphemy against God.
Blasphemy. His name and his Tabernacle.
And then that dwell in heaven.
And then later on.
Verse of the other beast, the Antichrist in verse 11 and then in verse 13.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had this sword wound of the sword, and did live, and so on.
So those that dwell upon the earth, and that's what we're talking about here in Philippians 3 in my earthly things, they're really earth dwellers, the real force of the verse, I believe, and they end up as apostates.
And they're the ones that call upon the earth. They're the ones that are still here. They as much as say we don't we we we want this earth, not heaven. And they're apostates and they're going to end up worshipping the beast and the false prophet.
Terrible thing, but they were Christians.
Nominally, Christians, apostate Christians, then they dwell upon the earth, and they're the ones that Paul is referring to here in verses 18 and 19. Really. It's true that a true believer may may get away from the Lord and show some of these signs, but he's not really among this class. He's going to be in glory when the Lord comes. But those that are left here, that profess to be Christians, they're the earth dwellers. They're the ones referred to in verse 18 and 19.
Philippines St.
Verse 19 makes it plain black characterizes them whose God is their belly and whose glory is their is in their shame, who mind earthly things, and so they're seeking for self. That's the God being their belly, that they want to gain money, power, whatever those things are, and they mind earthly things.
00:50:13
Should be noticed of course that verses 18 and 19 are in a parenthesis.
So if you read directly from verse 17 to 20 it makes easy to see the thought than forever and be followers together of me and mark them which walk so she have us for an example for our conversation is in heaven, from whence we also look for the Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's the example of Paul, because he saw himself as one who was a heavenly citizen.
And that he was just the stranger in the Pilgrim here.
That's a good question. We can ask ourselves, do we see ourselves as clearly as strangers and pilgrims that we have no lasting interest here? Sometimes when we have visitors and they like to see Chicago and the downtown area, the waterfront and so on, we and their fellow believers, we often talk about these huge buildings. They're all going to be burned out. Nothing's going to be left here. No monuments demand, no earthly things. We are heavenly citizens that we look for that coming day.
Isn't that nice? And so we can be followers of Fall or as not really following Paul as our brother pointed out, but to use him as our example.
At 20th, Versus has a little bit of a pitch that can help us for our conversations.
As an Old English word which means manner of life, but I like to pull the 2 words together and.
Ask myself, what is my conversation as a believer?
I've taken up with things of the world, politics and all the different things that concern this world. What's my conversation there?
Let alone the manner of life.
What am I talking about?
If we've enjoyed a happy meeting.
What's What's the conversation around after continuation of the enjoyment of the Lord, or back on those worldly things? It hits my conscience.
Because the valley here, now that is, we take that to be the infection.
Is that is that what that speaks of?
You know the enjoyment of things down here.
But I was thinking of the word that the Lord spoke there in.
On 737 it says, In the last day, that great day of the fees, Jesus stood and crawled and stayed with any man deserves. Let him come unto me and drink.
Believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Is it a nice thing if?
Well, I think this, I know this is back to the point of where those infections are, where your heart is.
You know you can't. You know your hearts in the world. You talk about the world. It's just the way it is. These men, they took knowledge of them. They attended Jesus. He's the only one that can change us. And here he says, come unto me, What a wonderful thing here in Philippians 3 where it says boss shall reveal even this unto you. You know, you may think you're insignificant. Maybe you.
Well, the enemy certainly wants to tell us that. The enemy wants to convince us that God pays no attention to you. You're really insignificant.
But that's not the case. And God tells us over and over again that his eye is upon the Sparrow, and He looks upon all of his children. All of his children are of the same words to Him.
And these men that had been with Jesus, that's the key to us too for our walk that we are with him. And then what happens here? Well, in the last day of Great Gator peace, Jesus stood and thrived. This was certainly in the Lords belly wasn't it? He came to seek and to save. That was his loss. Saying if any man thirst well you have a curse. Well that's good, that's good. Well.
00:55:05
Let him come unto me and drink. Well, that's what we've been doing here is we've been drinking.
And letting our appetite he that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, You know, right, right out of his inner being. It's going to come right out of there because that's what it's going to be. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, Our heart has to be filled and worn. I like to illustrate it this way, brother. I've got to have my hand on the first part. I have to be drawing from The Fountainhead. And then it goes into my life, into my belly.
And I'm living and my other hand goes out in health and blessing to others. But I must have one hand here. Either believe that imperfect tense going on and on and on. If it goes in and affects my life, then I'm going to desire a blessing for others.
This word for conversation in verse 20 is not It's unfortunate the King James translators translated to this way because another word, an entirely different word which means conduct or behavior, is also translated conversation here. It's the word that we get our word politics from political our associations of life are Commonwealth. Like one says I'm born an Englishman. Well, if he's born an Englishman then he's interested in that which would further the cause of the.
English Empire, the British Empire and so on. That's what he is. Our Commonwealth is in heaven. We belong to heaven. That's why we don't vote, That's why we don't partake in these these things that have to do with improving this world. The world is a condemned thing and our Commonwealth is in heaven.
So our conduct follows upon that, but this is stating.
We're citizens there. We belong to heaven, that's where. And that's the great contrast that he's making with the verses that just preceded.
Beautiful 21St verse.
Just an up sweep.
To close our meeting with.
Who shall?
That's the strong word. That's like I will.
It's not future, it's determined who shall transform our bodies of humiliation.
That it may be fashioned until his body of glory.
According to the working.
Or by his able even to subdue all things to himself. All comes from him. Lived here in these few days, enjoyed I would go home and we lived. We lived until we hear the shout, and there we are in the glory forever.
We use the term savior.
I think sometimes I'm thinking, in other words, that is a title of the Lord Jesus, but it's really his work.
Saved us. So he is the one who saved. And it just strikes me that verse 21 really.
Gives substance to the term Savior because as our Savior he shall change our wild body that will be fashioned like His. Glory of body isn't at the end of our salvation. We have that term in scripture of course where we think of salvation and I think it's often turned 3 aspects.
Time when we put our trust in Christ and so we have salvation in. We think of salvation as day by day the Lord is interceding health and protecting health for us as we walk this path in that salvation as we have it here. When there will be translated from the scene brought into glory and how you might say the complete fulfillment of itself, it just strikes me that it's so if we could say from whence we also look for the Lord Jesus Christ, but no.
01:00:08
We have no idle words in scripture, as we well know. And so it says the Savior because this is the fulfillment, you might say, of all that we have in Christ according to the.
Beautifully that thought that you're expressing 30th verse of the first epistle of Corinthians.
Chapter One.
1St Corinthians 130 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus will. God is made unto us. Now here's the order, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I think that redemption would be first, but that's bearing it, what you're just saying. But that's the fulfillment. That's the completion of the whole thing. Our bodies are going to be changed.
Lastly and that's that's finality.
Like the comment that was made recently, there is no incurable disease for the Christian. Every disease it's going to find its fullest answer of what we're considering here in verse 21.
We will have a body like his body of Gordon. Tremendous. Think about what's called in Romans Chapter 8, The Redemption of the Body. It's interesting the adoption because the world looks on us today and looks at us and they say, hey, you got great hairs just as well as we do.
You get sick just as well as we do. You've got your aches and pains just like anybody else in the world. What's the difference? Well, they don't see any difference.
In us it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when that change takes place, it will be evident. These people are the adopted sons of God. Look at them, look at their bodies, and the one leap into immortality.
Tremendous to think about it. Bodies fashion. Like his body of glory, he has a body. When he resurrected, he came back from the dead. He had a body that was capable of going right into the glory of God. We have bodies only adapted for life on earth. So man goes into space. He has to wear a special suit in space. He can't live in that body in space.
We're going to have bodies transform like his body of Lord, walk right in to the glory of God.
We're in the body of humiliation now, it said. It says vile body, but that's wrong. We know we don't have vile bodies. The spirit of God dwells in these bodies. They're not vile, but they are bodies of humiliation. That is they they can, they can suffer, they can die. The only part of man that does die is his body. His spirit and soul never die. So death always applies to the body. But when we receive the body of glory, death will have no application to it whatsoever.
Death will be swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is thy stain? Where, O Gray, thy victory?
Will be in bodies of glory, but now we're still in bodies of humiliation and not vile. But they are frail, they're lowly, they're subject to disease and sickness and death. But the body of glory will change all that.
Can I take the liberty of doing what I don't like to do? And that is to read a Darby new translation translation in the reading meetings. But I'd like to pass this on to you if you would turn to Ephesians before we close. Ephesians 415 and 16 speaking about the body.
And.
These two verses in the Darby translation are, to my mind, their soul elevating and.
Just lift up the soul.
Ephesians 4/15/16.
01:05:00
But holding the truth in love.
We may grow up to him in all things.
Who is the head? The Christ from whom the whole body?
Fetches together and connected by every joint of supply according to the working of its measure of each one.
Part works for itself, the increase of the body to itself, building up in love.
You were saying 273?
273.
Oh Lord, how does thy mind change?
The Lord.
Remember. All right then we go and glory.
Text me tomorrow 5:32.
110.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee for Thy precious word. We thank you for these happy meetings we've had together, and we thank you for the truth Thou has registered to us from it.
Pray that by the Spirit of God who indwells each one of us, that will make these truths good to our souls and in our lives, we give you thanks. Now commit us to thee for the rest of the day and ask thy blessing on the gospel tonight. And thank people with our Spirit and in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Amen.
Open Mtg.
Open—L. Smith, N. Berry, C. Hendricks
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Chapter 13.
Verse 10.
And lot.
Lifted up his eyes.
Chapter 16.
Verse 4.
And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, that is Abram saying.
This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad and said.
Look now.
Toward heaven.
Chapter 18.
And the Lord appeared under him in the park lanes of memory, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
And he lift up his eyes and look.
And.
Three men stood by.
When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground and said, My Lord.
Chapter 22.
The.
We're familiar with this passage.
But in verse 13.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes.
Ioneve looked.
And behold, behind him around, caught in the cricket by his horns.
It even went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
Abram called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh. As it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord it shall be still.
Later, Moses.
So I praise you.
00:05:04
Show me Thy glory.
One more passage. John, chapter 4.
Verse 34.
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.
And finish his work.
Say not ye, there are yet four months. Invent on the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes.
And look on the fields for their white already to harvest.
He that reapers receiveth wages.
And gathered through unto life eternal, that both he that swords and read it recently rejoice together.
In bringing these verses before our hearts.
May we each question.
Harold Harris.
Where are our eyes?
What is the goal?
For who is the goal?
Is it wonderful?
When Abraham rose so early in the morning, the Lord says.
With a look, look now towards heaven.
It's wonderful too. There's a harvest still going up.
And the Lord says, lift up your eyes, look on the feet.
Lot lifted up his eyes and looked the wrong direction.
He brought himself and his family.
Into difficulty.
Though he probably prospered outwardly for a little while.
May the Lord encourage us.
To look where he would have his look.
And it has a goal that has assured it.
There's a reaping time.
There's a sewing time, and soon both will be rejoicing together.
Dear young people.
It's a vast world.
There are peoples who do not have any of the word of God in their language.
Put your eyes on the fields.
Are you tuned to just prospering this world?
Do you see the heavenly side?
Look now in the stars.
You see the goal Paul had before him.
Pressing towards the mark of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
In this very chapter we've had before us, he says. If there's anything you'd be otherwise minded.
He assumed you would want to know.
If you were otherwise minded, because surely you want to be minded.
Down to the goal I press.
In prison.
Still to the goal we just thought.
Tonight, presence.
We're happy.
As we stand those words, we can suffer. We can die.
Did your heart go out to your brethren?
00:10:01
And being put to death for Christ's sake today.
Last year, between 165 and 185,000 Christians worldwide or martyrs. It's one every 3 1/2 minutes.
If the goal is before us, we can suffer.
We can die.
Vera Ives.
May we remember these ones in bonds and prayer.
Instead of the goal before us.
The morning has asked us.
This question.
Where?
All right.
It's vital they love it.
Nothing more importantly.
For each one of us these days is the days darkened violence, corruption increases.
Where are our eyes?
Let's turn to 2nd Kings chapter.
6.
There are problems for.
A man.
We're in the day of problems, there's no doubt about it.
Dear younger brothers and sisters growing up in the assembly, the Lord doesn't come soon. You're going to face such as you never have dreamed of before, I do believe.
The world is plunging down, my son was saying. It's not only going down, but it's going down faster.
Here are problems, Second Kings chapter 6 and verse eight. I won't spend too much time on this, but I want to speak about the eyes.
Then the king of Syria here was the enemy, the Arkham enemy stimulus is Israel is enemy right across the Jordan River.
Against Israel and took counsel with His servants.
Saying in such and such a place shall be my camp.
This was let me just pass on my thoughts on this. This is like listening in on Safety's council, our enemy.
And here is what they were planning.
And the man of God.
Here is you and me, here we are in the manner of God, sent unto the King of Israel, saying.
Beware.
That thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are coming down immediately. The man of God has the mind of the Lord. Nobody told him that he had his eye on the Lord, and he got the message directly from the Lord, and he says don't go there.
And the king of Israel sent to the place. It wasn't going to just do what he was told. He's going to test it out like we are sometimes, aren't we? We're not quite sure whether we should.
Accept the truth, and the King of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of. Notice this and.
Save himself there.
Not once.
But twice are we listening?
00:15:00
We've come to them meetings. Are we listening to what the Lord is saying?
This man partially listened, but listen. But he was he was a reward because he went to check it to see if that place was really what were the camp of the enemy was. Sure enough, it was saved himself once, twice. Good.
Verse 11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria. Now here's the other side again. Here's Satan's camp, as it were. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing. He was upset. He couldn't figure what was happening. And he called his servants and said unto them, Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?
Judy saying he said somebody, somebody is a, is a.
Presley someone is a deceiver. Somebody's listening to what I said, and you're talking to the enemy. Not at all. It wasn't that at all.
The man of God was in communion with the Lord.
Will not you show me which of us is for the King of Israel? None of us, just the imagination. He had nothing to go on. Beloved young ones, and each one of us.
There is nothing outside of course nothing. They're all just stumbling over each other and new theories. Just recently reading how new age movement, you know where that came from. Zoroaster's writings in the 5th century BC.
Beloved ones, is our ear tuned? Is our eye fixed on Christ?
Verse 12 and one of his servants said none, Hillary.
He had the thoughts proper, my Lord, O King, but Elijah.
The prophet that is in Israel tell us, the king of Israel, the words that thou speakest in thy bed chamber. Those are the secret things that are man and wife speak about in their bedroom. Or he says, hey Elisha, he knows.
You know their loved ones. The word of God tells us the last verses of the first chapter of curtain of First Corinthians. We have the mind of the Lord verse 13 and he said.
Go and spy where he is. This was the the enemy that I may send and fetch him.
Enemy is going to get them and beloved ones.
The enemy has one target, not you, me, Christ, to rob the Lord Jesus of his glory, and he'll put credit onto you if he can. If you are listening to the enemy, you're going to be deceived and so here, he says.
I'm going to get that one. I'm going to catch him, get him. And it was told him saying, behold, he is in Dothan. That means two cans. Therefore sent he thither.
Now here is think of it now, one man of God and the king of Syria. Listen, the arm that he's raising now to get one man.
Horses. Chariots.
A great host.
One man, Satan, will stop at nothing to get you a bit of it. And beloved ones, and me too.
Is it possible not have our eyes on Christ? I'm at my verse comes to me first Epistle of John chapter 5 around.
The end of the chapter it says he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.
Oh, what a protection we have, beloved ones.
Let's go on.
And when? Now here is the young man. Now, just a word to you, younger brothers. Here it is. Lemoyne brought this verse to my thoughts.
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I guess I.
15.
You know, and 15 and when the servant of the man of God was risen early.
Here is Elisha's hand man that was with him. What a lovely job that must have been to be with a man of God, and he's going to learn some lessons now.
It was arisen early and gone forth. It wasn't wasting his time. He was looking after Elisha who walks outside. What's he see? Behold and host compass the city, both with horses and Chariots. And his servants said unto him, Alas my master, how shall we do? He walks outside him.
Surrounding our whole place, the mountains are covered with soldiers.
Frightening. Frightening. That's what Satan may be trying to do to you, Frighten you or else to deceive you. One of the two. And here are the young fellows full of consternation. When he sees what's around him, he surrounded. It's hopeless as far as man is concerned.
And the answer? Or is that beautiful? 2 words. Fear or not, that's all. He didn't come out to even look.
What is the difference? That man had his eyes on the road.
A view of I day by day.
The circumstance is getting worse. Or it couldn't be much worse than this one man and his servants surrounded by a host of an enemy. It's all up with him.
Brought Elisha says 2 words here.
2 words. Don't be afraid.
What's he talking about? Don't be afraid. Let's go on.
40 How beautiful this verse is.
For they that be with us are more than they that be with them. They love as young ones and older ones. They realize that they that before us are more than they are against us. There is no.
That verse that I quoted an epistle of John, the Lord will keep Satan from being able to get at you. John. I think one of the good portions in John's Gospel, can't remember the chapter. The Lord said the Prince of this world cometh and that nothing in me. There was nothing in the Lord that Satan could get at nothing. And this verse in the epistle of John says if you keep yourself.
You and I keep ourselves. God will see that this Satan can't touch you, won't touch you. Now what a beautiful answer to what Elisha was saying. Fear not, are you afraid?
No, not sure we will be afraid. Yes, with all that's around us, fear not.
What's next?
Beautiful.
What color follows?
And Elisha phrase, Elisha would have to pray, would he? Yes, it was an expression of dependence. Here's the man of God.
Does he need to pray? Yes. Like the Apostle Paul said, pray for me. Yes, we certainly need each other's prayers. So he says. And Elisha prayed and said 6 words. Now Lord.
I pray.
Open his eyes.
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The Lord saying, oh, take that elderly Elijah, was he praying? Lord, take the difficulties away? No, not at all. He was saying, open the Lord, open his eyes. I say this to you, dear Yewens and all Romans 2 This afternoon.
Open your eyes.
And you have to pray twice, prayed once.
Open his eyes that he may see. That was the trouble. He couldn't see.
Wasnonet looking in the right direction, You and I won't see things clearly unless we get our eye on the Lord, Psalm 32 and eight says.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in his heart, in whose heart of the highways he got a highway map right in your heart. Keep your eye on the Lord. You'll know which way to go. And so here he's praying mosquito prayer. Open his eyes that he may see.
Short prayer, wasn't it? The Lord? Hear that, Listen, look at the rest.
And the Lord.
Opened the eyes of the young man. I think it's so beautiful because didn't open everybody's eyes. Just one young fellow got his eyes open. What's he see and he saw.
And behold, the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire round about Elijah.
There were angels, Army, no angels.
What made the difference?
Eyes fixed.
Among those.
Psalm 34 says the.
Angel of the Lord and campus about them that fear him.
That's a beautiful promise that the Lord has got his angels around us all, you dear young ones.
The big dangers are that the world has such an attractive attraction for your eyes to lure you this way or that way, confuse you, cause you to doubt whether that what you're telling mom tell you are really the truth.
Or though your parents are praying for you. Open the young man's eyes. The angels I can camping around by the whole mountain is full of angels.
One Angel killed. I think there's 375,000 men.
Angels. Angels, Yes. What about angels?
Hebrews chapter 2 tells us.
That if you and I are faithful in this life now.
That when the Millennium comes along, the Lord is going to tell the angels you step aside.
And who's going to replace the angels? Those who have been faithful in this life, who keep your eyes on Christ and Christ alone. Your heart will be filled with Christ and nothing else, and you will be living for the Lords Lord. You'll know what to separate from down here. You'll have answered prayers and you'll have discernment.
May the Lord open our eyes.
Turn to Ephesians 1.
And verse 15.
Ephesians 115 Wherefore I also.
After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.
And love unto all the Saints.
Cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
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May give unto you the spirit of wisdom.
And revelation in the knowledge of him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
That ye may know what is the hope of his calling.
And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to Usward, who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come?
And have put all things under his feet.
And gave him to be the head over all things to the church.
Which is his body, the fullness of him.
That filleth All in all.
There are two prayers in Ephesians. This is the first one.
That Paul prays.
And he's, he's praying in this first prayer.
That the Saints.
Might understand.
And enter in to that which is theirs in Christ, risen and glorified at the right hand of God.
He says I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
In the third verse of the chapter he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
He addresses him, He speaks of him in two ways, as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then there are two prayers, and the prayer in chapter one is to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father or The Fountainhead of glory.
And in the third chapter he prays to the Father. Verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the God of our Lord Jesus Christ that has set a man in the highest glory.
Above all, principalities and powers.
And everything that is created, he has set a man in that glory. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ has done that. He was here to glorify God as to the whole question of sin, and He did it perfectly on the cross. And now God has taken that man who lay in death, placed in the tomb, and he has raised him.
He has quickened him and raised him, and seated him in the highest place in heaven.
And the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, that blessed man, that risen and glorified man, has given us the place in association with himself who is there.
As well. And so he's praying in this first chapter that our eyes may be opened, that our eyes, the eyes of our understanding, the eyes of our heart, New translation being enlightened.
Being enlightened, being brought into an understanding of the place that God has given to His Son as man.
And then he's brought us to into association with him there as well.
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The praise in verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
He's not praying to the Father here, he's praying to the God here, but he is the the Father, the originator, The Fountainhead of all glory, and he has set that man in that glory.
The highest place that there is in the universe.
What does he pray that he may give unto you the spirit of wisdom?
And revelation in the knowledge of Him, the knowledge of Him, where He is, as set there by God, whom he has glorified an infinite cost to Himself on the cross. He has now answered that work, and set that man in the highest place in heaven.
When he came down, he became a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and now that he has been raised, he has gone above the angels. Tells us that at the end of the chapter. Fire above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. He's exalted him to the highest place in his universe, a man.
The gospel of the grace of God is that God came down, He bypassed the angels coming down and he assumed humanity, became a man, was born of a virgin and grew up as that perfect holy man, and then entered his public ministry for 3 1/2 years. He was crucified on a cross of ignominy and shame and reproach and dishonor.
And God took that blessed man who lay him down and raised him, quickened him, raised him, and set him at that highest place in heaven. The last time the world saw him was a man dead on the cross. And then his own took over. They took him down. They laid him in the tomb.
And God raised him from the dead. God, God and all that he is. He glorified God as to sin and as to all the dishonor that sin had brought upon God. He glorified God at the cross, and now God has glorified him.
John 13 Now is the Son of man glorified, and God.
Is glorified in Him, glorified in Him as the one that hung on that cross.
His perfect obedience culminating in his death on the cross, Philippians 2.
Obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, giving Him that place. And we belong to that man whom the world will not have, whom the world has cast out and rejected, whom the world still hates.
And his worst enemies, by the way, are in the Christian world, men who have set aside the Word of God is the all authoritative source for the Christian and have replaced it with their own thoughts.
Dishonouring to God and to Christ.
God has set that blessed man in that place of glory and he prays here we were we were hearing about lift up your eyes. These praise here that the eyes of your understanding. Verse 18 again being enlightened.
That we might see what man has done to him and what God has done to him.
Now as the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him, if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself.
And she'll straightway glorify him.
A man glorified in God himself, a man said in that sublime, supreme, excellent glory. What can we say? How can we understand and fathom the place that that blessed one man gave him the very worst place, God has given him the very highest place.
And he wants our eyes to be.
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To understand, to be enlightened and that we understand and, and that the wisdom that is all connected with Christ in glory and the bride that he is going to associate with himself in that glorious scene above. He wants us to understand that wisdom that he may give you the spirit of wisdom.
And revelation, it's a revelation. It's not something that we can arrive at by our own reasoning or our own thought processes. It's a revelation from God himself that he has set that man in that highest place in glory.
The eyes of your understanding, the eyes of your heart, literally being enlightened.
To see that man.
To lose sight of everything else and see him, and see him where he is and the place that God has given to him. He's placed everything under his feet.
And he's associated you and me.
We who believe in this present day of grace with himself in that supreme glory.
We're going to share it all with him. He's not going to have it alone. You remember when God created Adam? He said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper, suitable meat for him.
And so he caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and while he slept he opened up his side, and he took one of his ribs and building a woman and brought her to the man.
And when he saw her, he said, This is now bold of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of the man.
And they had dominion, Adam and Eve, over all of this earthly creation, and Christ and his heavenly Bride have dominion now over all that God has put under His feet. He doesn't take it alone and by himself.
But after he's associated us with him, Paul is praying to that the Saints. I remember speaking to a brother.
In Jamaica years ago, when I was in my 20s, I was there for three months preaching the gospel and ministering the Word with another older brother.
And I remember a brother talking about this passage in Ephesians, and he spoke about these wonderful things as all future, and we pointed out to him that these things are true right now.
That we are run with him now.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
That she may know what is the hope of his calling.
That's not just that he's going to come for us, but that's all that that scene of glory that we're going to share with him. The hope of his calling. He's called us to glory. He's called us to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus. The hope of his calling is that all that God has to share with us, He's going to share it as joint heirs with Christ, those that are one with him.
The hope of His glory.
And.
To know what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance.
In the Saints, all that he is one as a man down here in this scene.
All that he has acquired, his acquired glories, all that God is going to confer upon that man.
We're going to he's going to enter into the the inheritance of it. Ask of me, he said in Psalm 2. I'll give thee the the nations for thine inheritance.
Kings of the earth, for thy possession. Everything is his, and he's going to take possession of it in the persons of the Saints.
His inheritance in the Saints? He's not going to take it alone.
A man built this glorious mansion and.
A person said to him.
Have you lived in it yet? And he said no, not yet.
Well, why aren't you living in it? And he said. Because I'm not going to enjoy it alone.
I'm waiting for my bribe and when we are united.
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Then I and she will enter into it together and we'll enjoy it together.
And that's the wonderful truth that he is praying for here. He's going to take his inheritance in the Saints, not alone, but we'll all be there and we'll all share it with him.
How this dims the glory of everything that is down here. How this deems the things that we can seek after and and try to get ahold of down here. We want to get this or that. And if we just acquire this or get this possession or get this job or attain to this scholastic standard and get our degree or whatever it might be, if I can, if we can just acquire that and get that.
Oh, that will be glory for me.
Christ is that man.
And he's going to enjoy it and inherit it as man. He's won it all and we're going to be there.
The hope of his glory I will be there with Him.
And we will enjoy it together with himself.
And so he prays that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
But you may know what is the hope of his calling.
The hope of his calling is not just heaven.
Where do you want to go when you die? Well, I want to go to heaven. That's what a person will say ordinarily. I used to say that as a child I wasn't saved, never even heard the gospel when I said go to heaven. The hope of his calling is infinitely more than just that. It's not just going to a a place paradise.
When Adam was there in the Garden of Eden without his pride.
He didn't have that which satisfied his heart. He brought all the animals to him, He gave them names, but he found none. That was his help, made his life until God brought him Eve.
And then he could enjoy it and share it with the one that was.
Himself, and more than that.
Hope of his calling. And what is the riches of his glory, the glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
Going to enjoy it with us.
And there's one thing more. He prays. He prays that you, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know three things, the hope of his calling.
And what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints?
And the third thing is, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to Usward who believe?
What is the greatness of his power? What has it done? First of all, it has set a man who lay in death and was laid in a tomb that has raised that man, giving him life, and raised him, and sent him in that scene of glory above.
What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us? Word who believe?
That same power that operated towards him and set him in that place now operates towards us.
To give us a place in Him as well it will one day soon reach to our bodies.
And then glorified even as to our bodies, we will be set with him in that scene of.
Glory above.
He wants us to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us, where He believed according to the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all principality and power and light and dominion, all the angelic hosts, far above that is a man that's gone beyond that.
God has sent him there, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, every name that's named. He's been given a name that is above all those names, and he's been put in a place that's beyond theirs. And God has put all things under his feet, everything subjected to him, everything heavenly, everything earthly.
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And gave him to be the head over all things.
Church. He gave him to the church as a head over all things.
They head over oil things.
So this this woman that's been waiting to get married to this man?
He becomes the king.
The king of the whole realm, the empire, He's the king of it all. And then he takes her to be his bride.
And he now comes into that position, not just of being his wife.
But she is to share with him that reign and that authority which he has over all things. He's head over all things, a man. A man. Just think of it. He came so low that he became a man. He became one of us in the park. And now God has taken that man and set him over all of creation, but not alone.
Given him the church, the assembly.
To be associated with him.
In that place of supreme glory.
Now, when we see this, when the eyes of our hearts are enlightened to understand God's wisdom and it's been revealed to us, how can we seek?
A place down here, How can we seek a place of fame?
Down here.
The natural man seeks.
I got this from brother Norm Wood some years back and I think it's five things. Power, which is fame.
Maybe there's only four.
Pleasure.
Pleasure, riches, power and fame. I think those are the four.
The blessed Lord, that's what man seeks. He seeks these things down here. And when we enter into Ephesians one and the eyes of our understanding, the eyes of our heart are enlightened to enter into what is ours.
It's just as much hours now as it will be in that day when it's it's realized in all its fullness and we're there and glorified bodies and we'll share it all with him. It's ours entitled now, but we have to wait the moment when we'll enter into that scene in bodies like I do so.
Another day that will be.
The church, which is his body.
The fullness of him that filleth. All in all, he is not complete as man without.
Just like Adam was not complete without ease.
Was not complete without her and together they shared it all.
And together, we'll share it all with him.
We have our eyes enlightened so that we understand.
What is ours in him?
And we're going to share it all.
With him.
I think of the verse. I think it's in Second Thessalonians.
Let's just turn to it.
2nd Thessalonians.
Yes.
Chapter 2 and verse 13.
But we are bound to give thanks all week to God for you, bread and beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning.
Chosen you to salvation.
Through sanctification of the Spirit.
And belief of the truth. He chose us in eternity past.
He sanctified us by the Spirit by believing the truth in the present time.
And He called us in time, where until he called you by our gospel. We heard the gospel of His call, His call of grace.
And then there's the future to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, brethren.
Stand fast and hold the traditions, the instructions.
Better rendering which you've been taught.
Paul had taught them these instructions, he says. Hold them.
And we would say that each one here holds the instructions which he's been taught, whether by word or Ari Thistle.
He had been amongst them and he had taught them verbally by word and they had received it. He says hold them fast.
Or by our epistle, his writings, we have those writings in the New Testament. We don't have the verbal words of our of the Apostle Paul like they have.
But we have the written word.
There's something better about the written word than the oral word, and that is you can go back to it and it stands and stands and stands, and you can always refer to it, and if you've misread it, you can correct yourself by reading it again.
We can't do that by something you've heard. You may have heard it wrong, or you've forgotten it correctly or whatever, but the written word is permanent and God has given us.
His written word that all it is ours might be enjoyed in our souls.
I have to shame myself, and each of us will have to do the same in the measure in which we seek things here.
And we think, oh, if I could just have that object.
That house.
That car.
That suited clothes or that dress or whatever it might be, these material things, and then I would be happy. No, he won't. None of these things will make you happy. None of these things can make you happy. But if you fix your eye, the eyes of your understanding enlightened, you fix those eyes upon these things that are real and eternal and will never fade, that will make you happy.
Because you'll be enjoying and sharing what he has prepared for you. What would you think of the bride whom this king brings to his mansion? He's never lived there by himself. And he brings her in and sets her down in the the hallway before they enter the place. And she's just, she just awe that the beauty of it.
And he says to her, come, takes her by the hand. Come, let me show you all of the different rooms and it's all yours.
It's all ours to enjoy together. What would you think of her? She said.
Oh I don't want to see those. I just enjoying this one room.
But I I want you to see all that I.
I have one for you and prepared for you and I want you to enjoy it with me.
Well, that's, that's our God. He's brought us into it. He doesn't want us to dwell upon this or that. It's a wonderful truth, and I wouldn't say a word that would diminish it. That our sins are forgiven, wonderful truth and we have eternal life, wonderful truth. But there's more, there's more, there's much more. And he wants us to enter into it and to enjoy it all with him. With him. We're going to enjoy it in eternity with Him.
It will never end.
He wants us to enjoy it now.
Well, May God enlighten. Read that 17th verse again, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Whenever he talks about the mystery and that which is concerning Christ in the Church, he brings in wisdom and revelation, and then he says that the eyes of your understanding or your heart being enlightened, that you may know.
The three things the hope of your calling.
The hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us, were to be the very same power that took Him from death and set Him above the highest heaven in the glorious man is operating now towards us to give us to the enjoyment of it. One day we'll be there. That same power that raised Him there will raise us there.
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And will be their body, soul, and spirit blameless. Lord, hasten that day.
Royal Brownies. Browns. Brown.
Where all the time flowing.
Ever while I sleep.
Calm down.
Oh my God.
That are in the clefts with the rock.
In the secret places of the stairs.
Let me be by counting.
But we will thy voice.
Or to sweeten thy voice and thy countenance.
And we have to confess, Gracious Father, how?
Our eyes do get distracted on things around.
But we thank people for the reminder this afternoon.
To direct our eyes in the right direction.
And may it be so, Father, that our eyes might penetrate the thin veneer of material things to see beyond to those eternal realities.
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That are ours in Christ, gracious Father to focus, right?
We just do ask Thy blessing on my precious word to our hearts this afternoon. We continue to commend ourselves to Thee this afternoon.
The time in between meetings two and the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Open Mtg.
Open—R. Thonney, D. Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
This afternoon, and perhaps we can start in First Thessalonians chapter 5.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and beginning with verse 19.
Quench not the Spirit.
Despise, not prophesying.
Prove all things.
Hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Interesting rather than.
Traveling in South America amongst those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus in those parts, one thing that.
Seems to stand out.
Time and again, down there is the insistence.
And make quite a point of it, of giving liberty to the Spirit of God.
In the assembly meetings, and I think that's such an important thing.
Not saying that we don't, brethren, but I think there needs to be.
Probing.
Not only on the part of justice, certain brethren, but on the part of each one.
Present.
What does the liberty of the Spirit mean? What does it mean that we give liberty to the Spirit that we don't?
Quench the spirit.
I think sometimes we have the idea when we speak of the liberty of the spirit that everyone has equal right to take part. That is not what we're talking about.
In fact, I'd like to turn it around a bit to say perhaps no one has any right to take part. The only one who has right to act is the Spirit of God. And if he sees fit to choose a vessel that is sitting there, that vessel ought to give to the Spirit of God liberty to use that vessel.
I say that because it does concern me at times to see in some of our public meetings that it seems like there are many who come with the preconceived idea as they sit down. I'm not going to take any part, I'm just here to listen.
That may be true. Perhaps the Spirit of God will not use you as a vessel, but you should sit down in the assembly meetings with the attitude, Lord, here is an empty vessel. If you want to use me, I want to give the Spirit liberty to use. And I think that's what it means. Quench not the Spirit if I'm going to sit there and say.
I'm not going to open my mouth.
That is quenching the spirit.
And so this goes on here. It says despise, not prophesying. I think there is another thing that is important. Listen to what is said, you may not.
Particularly like a certain vessel that the Lord may raise up to speak a word, but don't despise prophesying.
It may be that vessel that God is going to use to speak a word to you.
Doesn't mean everything that is said may be exactly right. In fact, it goes on to say in verse 21, prove all things. In other words, test it. That's why we have our Bibles open in front of us to see if what is being said squares with the light of Scripture.
And if it doesn't?
Hold fast that which is good, don't hold fast the rest. These are important things. I'd like to turn over to 1St Corinthians chapter 12 in this connection. I say this because I think it is a particular exercise to me to see as they do a little traveling that I do that many times in certain meetings. There are a number of younger brethren coming along, but.
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It seems like they're not exercised to take part. They're not giving the Spirit of God liberty to use them. And I stay down in South America in many parts, brethren, the little gatherings are made-up of younger breath, a lot of younger brethren. And I'm amazed at how God opens up the truth of Scripture through brethren that you might say don't have very much teaching.
That the Spirit of God is there for that purpose to open the scriptures up.
To us, brethren, and if we'll just put ourselves in His hands.
To use us as vessels, you may say I don't have much to offer.
It may not be much you have to offer, but it's what you do with that little bit that you do have to offer.
Sometimes I refer to what happened when the Lord Jesus was going to feed the 5000.
What happened? You know, the Lord Jesus could have produced the food out of nowhere. He could have done that, but he did not choose to do so. He first turned to his disciples and his disciples are zero. They have some ideas, but they really don't have any concrete, anything concrete until Andrew comes up with this little boy. He has a lunch. Only 5 loaves.
Which is really 5 roles and two fishes. That's all he had. That's not much. The Lord Jesus said bring them to me.
And that's what the Lord Jesus used to be till they were suffice 5000 men plus women and children, and they took out 12 baskets full. So that little bit that you think doesn't amount to much. I want to encourage you younger brothers in your home meetings to put it into the Lord's hands, open your mouth and the measure that the Lord gives.
Opportunity.
Speak a word that will be an encouragement. You don't know how encouraging it is to have younger brethren open their mouth in prayer, in praise as well for perhaps a question, how often a little question and reading meeting helps open up a scripture in a way that you may not have realized could happen. It's giving the Spirit.
Liberty, brethren, I think it's.
Important. Let's go to the First Corinthians chapter 12. I drink to read the first few verses of the chapter.
In this connection now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh All in all. Verse 7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all.
4/21 is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith, by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing, by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another, discerning of spirits, to another, diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit.
Dividing to every man severally as he will. Whereas the body is one and half many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. So also Christ. For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
00:10:22
Quite a bit said in these verses. We've read about the Spirit of God in verse 13.
Specifically tells us the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to unite believers into one body. And so you and I profess your young people to gather on that ground that there is one body. There is no other ground that Scripture contemplates but that ground of the one body, because that one Spirit has bonded us.
Has united us. Has baptized all believers.
Into one body. That's all that God recognizes.
He doesn't recognize diverse bodies. When we look at the public testimony in the world around, sometimes I say if we bring a heathen from some heathen land to the United States.
And he looked around at those people that call themselves Christians. Would he ever get the idea that there's only one body of Christians?
I don't think he would. Why? Because the public testimony is in ruins.
But the truth remains, it says here in verse 12.
For as the body is 1 doesn't say as the body should be one. Remember meeting a sister down in Bolivia?
Makes the practice, sad to say, of going from one place to another to another, where there are believers, true believers in the Lord Jesus.
And she said to me one time she was visiting her home. Brother, we should all be one.
I said to her sister, It's not that we all should be one.
The truth is, we all are one. We're just not acting like it.
We're all divided up, but there is a ground that God recognizes. And what is that ground?
One body isn't this wonderful? And by that spirit we are baptized into one body, and by that same spirit we are to be guided. And how many things of life?
In all things, He is here to guide us. Whether it's a matter of our individual lives, whether it's a matter of meeting together, it is the Spirit of God that is to guide us.
And if he's going to guide you and if he's going to guide me, is God the Spirit going to be the author of division in guiding us in diverse areas that are not in fellowship together? To say that would be to say that the Spirit of God is the author of division. Cannot say that, brethren. Spirit of God, there's a unity there.
Back, we're told in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 3.
To be solicitous in keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond.
Of peace. And I want to get back to hear these verses, these first verses of the chapter.
Because I think it is a serious thing. So we contemplate in those circles.
So-called Christian circles today that there are many different spirits at play and they're not many of them are not of God. And I think we have some tests here as to telling which spirits are of God and which are not.
He says here in verse one concerning spiritual and you'll notice the word gifts is in italics. It's not in the original. I think the thought is concerning spiritual manifestations. Brethren, I would not have you ignorant. I think that's the way Mr. Darby puts it in his translation.
00:15:11
It's not so much the question of spiritual gifts here, but the manifestation of the Spirit.
In the body of Christ.
And he says in verse two, you know that you were Gentiles carried away into these dumb idols even as you were led. In other words, in their unsaved life they were used to.
Being idolatrous and behind those idols were evil spirits, demons.
And it's a well known fact in many heathen countries that people who don't know anything of the name of Jesus speak in tongues by the power of spirits. It's a very common phenomena, phenomenon, even lands.
There are spirits at play and it is scary to see the spirits that are at play in so-called Christian circles.
Brethren, I think it is important for us to stop and to test ourselves about this matter in the presence of the Lord. What is the test that the apostle Paul gives here? Verse three I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus a curse, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord.
But by the Holy Ghost. In other words, the Spirit of God is always going to glorify the Lord Jesus.
Anything that does not glorify the Lord Jesus.
Is not the Spirit of God's Word?
The Apostle Paul could say we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. In other words, Pauls message wasn't to present himself, to set himself forward.
It was to set the Lord Jesus forward. Brethren, is that our purpose when we come together?
In public meetings is that those that come together would see.
Jesus.
Isn't that nice, that request that those Greeks had for Philip?
When they came up at the feast, they said to Philip, Sir, we would see Jesus. I think that's so nice to think about. We come together in public meetings. What is it? I I must say, rather than I think this is something that we need to be challenged about You young people, you older ones too. We need it, brethren, to realize that when we come together in public meetings to get our eyes on.
On to the Lord Jesus.
It's so easy to look at one brother and another brother. Oh this nice brother is with us tonight, going to have a nice meeting and we getting our eyes off The Fountainhead. A blessing and onto a mere means, a mere vessel.
That's quenching the Spirit. Let's not do that, brethren. There's too much of that. I am convicted that goes on and it does not help. We need to all sit down here consciously in the presence of the Lord Jesus and allow the Spirit of God liberty to use us if He so chooses.
As a vessel to speak his mind for a moment, may the Lord help us to be exercised about it. They're so easily a tendency of getting our eyes on human vessels.
To forget we are in the presence of the Lord of glory.
The one who is the God of the universe.
How can any brother, as gifted as he may be compared with the glory of God's beloved Son? It cannot be. The Lord Jesus outshines them all, and God is jealous, brother, for the glory of His Son. You remember on the Mount of Transfiguration what took place.
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I know you all know the story, but I'm going to go over it briefly.
How there was Peter and James and John, and Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone as the sun, His garments were white and blistering.
And with him in glory appeared Moses in the light.
And those two or those 3 disciples had never seen Moses and Elijah. It must have been a very interesting thing for them. They'd heard so much about Moses and Elijah. And there they are, talking with Jesus right there. Tremendous. But what they didn't realize is they were getting their eyes off the central figure and onto some mere servant servants who were fallible, who made mistakes.
In their lives.
And Peter, it says he didn't know what he was saying.
You know, sometimes we get our mouth in gear before we really know what we're seeing. And that's what happened to Peter. You get your eyes off the Lord and get your mountain gear. It's kind of dangerous what comes out sometimes, but that's what happened. And Peter makes a suggestion. He says, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let us make 3 tabernacles, one for thee, but the Lord first.
But then one for Moses and one for your life.
What he didn't realize is he's putting the Lord Jesus on the same plane with two mere servants.
And God immediately brought in his glory cloud, and those two servants disappeared from view. There was a voice out of the cloud that said, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him. And they fell on their faces, as we might well fall on our faces in the presence of the Lord Jesus, brethren.
And when they lifted up their heads, when they lifted up their eyes again to look, they saw no one saved Jesus.
Brethren, what a lesson that is for us all. Who of us ranks anything in the presence of the Lord Jesus?
Impossible that it be that way, but I really believe it is in the measure that we get our eyes on brethren that we quench the Spirit, brethren.
Thank God for gifted brethren that have been a help to us. Thank God for them. I'm not.
The rate berating them in any way, thank God for them, but I say we need to be careful not to get our eyes on them, but to put our eyes consciously on the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord help us in this. Brethren, remember being in a certain place in Peru one time, mountains of Peru, a little mining town called a lot of coaching.
And they got their early in the Lord's Day morning. They were going to probably break bread about, if I remember right, about 11:00. And the meetings were held in a brother's home. And there are new believers down there. You have to make allowance for quite a bit, brother. But I got to the door of the brother's house. Oh, brother, good to see you. Wait a minute. I'm going to go call all the brethren. Wait a minute, brother, isn't this Lord's Day morning?
Aren't they going to be coming for the meeting? Oh yeah, yeah. But I'm going to go call them all. I said don't call anybody, brother. Let's see how many come because the Lord Jesus is here.
Sometimes we can turn out pretty good when there's a visiting brother.
But do we all turn out as well when there's no visiting brother? Are we guilty of treating of visiting brother with more respect with our presence than we do the glorious person of the Son of God who is always with us and you come together?
Just some things I think we need to be stirred about, brother, and I know you know these things.
But I want to stir your hearts. I think it's so important that we challenge our hearts as to what spirit there is with us. And so we have those two tests in verse 3. But I want to mention.
Another test that the Lord gave one time. Actually, it wasn't exactly that he gave the test, but the disciples were tested constantly in the Lord's presence.
00:25:04
One of the disciples said to the Lord Jesus, We saw one casting out demons in thy name, and we forbade him, and the Lord Jesus said.
He forbid him not for he that is not against. This is for us.
You know the reason why they forbade him, they gave was He followed, not us. Us was the reference point and that happened so easily, brother. We become the reference instead of God's reference, which is the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the center brother.
Oh I think it's so important to keep those things defined in our souls. Breath. He is the reference point and right in that same portion. I think it's in Luke Chapter 9 that it happens.
That the Lord Jesus is going towards Jerusalem and he sends somebody before him to go into the cities of the Samaritans and.
The Samaritans don't want to receive them because they know he's going towards Jerusalem.
And two of the disciples, I think it's John and James, we're very incensed. They felt that the name of the Lord Jesus had been dishonored by not wanting to receive them. And he said, they said to the Lord, will you have us call forth fire from heaven to consume them as Elijah did? They felt a real zeal for them.
But it was not the right spirit. And I think that's what's.
Important to see that sometimes you can actually have a zeal for the Lord but not have the right spirit. And the Lord had to rebuke them and say you don't know what spirit you are of. Oh brother.
How important it is the spirit we carry in our souls when they come to the assembly meetings together. I just want to encourage you, young people.
To keep a right spirit so important.
Now notice verse 6.
Excuse me, verse 4.
5:00 and 6:00 next 3 verses.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.
There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh. All in all, we have the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you can say verse six is the Father, it's God. It says there.
Anyhow, it is God that is in operation in the body of Christ.
In the assembly in this. Interesting.
There are differences of gifts, the same spirit, the diversity, and yet the unity is something that is extremely interesting to consider in the body of Christ. And that's what we have here, diversity and unity at the same time. You ever seen one brother that has a specific gift that is exactly the same as another brethren? I don't think he ever will.
They're all different, but it is the same spirit.
And there are differences of administrations or ministries.
Says in the margin of my Bible, but the same Lord, and so the ministry of one.
Differs from another the Apostle Paul was a great man of God.
He desired at one time that Apollos go to Corinth, and Paulus was definitely not of that mind.
But it's beautiful to see the way that Paul and apostas work together.
He didn't force the police to go. Paulus evidently went at another time. But there was differences of administrations, the same Lord, and there are difference, differences, diversities of operations. The way one brother does one thing is not the way another brother does it.
00:30:06
You have to walk in your own shoes. As our brother was talking to us yesterday, you can't walk in somebody else's shoes. When David was to go out to battle with the Philistines, Saul put his armor on David.
It was all clumsy because it didn't fit. He had to go and what he knew how to use. And so he picks up his sling and his staff and his shepherd's bag, and that's what he goes out to use because that's what he knew how to use.
But the thing that I want to encourage young people is the same time that there are differences, there's unity. In other words, the Spirit of God, there is a unity to his working. And when one brother speaks by the leading of a spirit and speaks after him by the leading of the same spirit, it's not going to be contradictory. It may be corrective, but it will be helpful each one that speaks.
If it's by the leading of the Spirit of God.
It's so important God's people know how to keep ranked.
That's what it speaks about. Some of those soldiers that came to help make David King back in Chronicles, it says they knew how to keep rank. Not one soldier getting way up ahead of the others. No keeping with his fellow soldiers, keeping right. And I think there's something to that, brother. Important to do, to keep praying.
To keep with your brethren, a soldier that gets all of way up ahead thinking he's really making time is going to be a target for the enemy. He's not going to have the backing of his others. The Lord helped us to walk with our breath. There's diversity, but there's unity, and this is extremely important to realize in the operation of the Spirit of God.
In the body of Christ in the assembly, verse 7 now.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to.
Some what does it say right?
Every man to profit with all, not just some brother.
To every man, to prophet with all. Can I speak a little more directly?
Sometimes it.
Pains me a bit.
In the prayer meetings at the conferences.
That it seems that only those.
Who are considered in quotes in the work are the ones who seem to get up and pray.
Brethren, that is going directly back toward the principles of Judaism and mechanics.
The Lord help us to be exercised in His presence.
To be vessels ready for the Spirit's use.
To be ready.
You know that praying and praising the Lord is not a matter of gift at all, it's a matter of being priests.
And every true believer in the Lord Jesus is born into God's family is a holy priest.
Capacitated to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
That's one of the priestly services, not just a certain few and more and more it seems like we're not being exercised along that line of truth. The Lord stir you, brother, and to be exercised about getting your mouth open at least to sit down in the Lord's presence with the attitude Lord, here I am. I want to be ready if you want to use.
00:35:04
With that attitude.
That will be giving liberty to the Spirit and the sisters too, to be exercised as they sit down here. Perhaps sometimes the sister says well.
Sisters can't take part in public meetings. It doesn't really matter if I doze off or not.
Does it not really matter? It does matter, sisters. Your attitude in sitting down here in public meetings is as much of an effect on the whole tone of the meeting as the attitude of any brother that is sitting there as well.
And I have often noticed in South America especially.
And there are some areas where the sisters seem to have real keen interest.
They sit there and in a public meeting with a keen interest to learn the Word of God. What a wonderful tone it gives to that meeting. They haven't said a word.
They don't need to say a word, but it's their attitude as they sit there and that leaks. The Lord help us, each one to be exercised as we're in the Lord's presence.
And so the Spirit gives to one the word of wisdom into another, a word of knowledge by the same Spirit I'm not going to comment so much on.
These things, it's the manifestations of the Spirit of God amongst us.
And it's evident when the Spirit of God speaks by one speaks by another. The Lord help us not to quench the Spirit.
I want to say another word perhaps.
I should confess that I'm perhaps more guilty of this than quite a few others there in this room. There's another way to quench the spirit, and it's by talking too much.
And perhaps I have more of that problem in a lot of other folks here.
Remember in Mexico one place we were and.
We go around with Ramon Alarcon and.
Few others, and we'd have a reading in the afternoon in this particular place, and we'd have the gospel in the evening.
And in the gospel meeting, Ramon, who is an older brother, usually spoke the gospel 1St and then he gave opportunity for others of us to speak to another brother that was along. He spoke and.
Then it came down to there was opportunity for me, but that particular evening I was dry, I had zero, I had nothing from the Lord.
But I said my brother and they're waiting for me to say something. I'd better get up and say something.
So I forced myself to get up and say something, and I don't remember what I said because it certainly wasn't conspiracy.
But while I was speaking I noticed a young brother get up and go and whisper and Ramon Alarcon's ear and and went back sat down.
And after I was done, why Ramon closed the meeting, the time was over. So after the meeting, Ramon remarked. Sure, too bad. Brother on Hill had something to say tonight, but there wasn't any opportunity for it.
Imagine how I felt, Brother Lord did try to get me to keep my mouth shut, and I'd opened it and I quenched the Spirit in.
Another young brother. I felt extremely battered, but that's another way of quenching the Spirit. The Lord help us, the Lord encourage us in our home meetings. I know that there is a great weakness in many areas.
But if you'll just take what little the Lord gives you, put it into the Lord's hand, place yourself as a vessel, no matter what the weakness, we still have a great God and the Lord Jesus has promised to be with us. His word is a blessing. Just the reading of it. You don't have to explain it so much.
Faith comes by hearing. It doesn't say by explaining the word of God, it comes by hearing.
And hearing by the word of God.
Get the book open. Let the Spirit of God have His liberty to use you in whatever measure He gives. I want to encourage you young people.
Older ones as well.
But the Spirit of God is present, brethren, and we need to be exercised to give him his liberty.
Want no more?
Turn with me for one verse and I believe it's Psalm 32.
Psalm 32.
And especially the last part of verse 8. We'll read the whole verse.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.
I will guide thee with mine eye, or it can be translated. I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee.
We've had something in these meetings together of the fact that.
And the importance of the need to have our eye upon the Lord Jesus.
And to lookout to the harvest as well, to have our eye to the needs.
Of the souls that are around us.
I'd just like to give a word of encouragement to each one of our hearts to know that the Lord Jesus as well as an eye, we are to have our eye upon Himself. But brethren, may our hearts be comforted and encouraged as we go forward.
In the thought that he himself.
In His love to you individually and to me as His eye upon us.
You and I are going to go forth from this place this day and continue on in the journey until the Lord comes for us.
And as we go, He himself is going to trace that path for us. Every moment of every day. His eye will be upon you. He won't slumber, he won't sleep, but He is going to trace the path for you with His eye upon you.
Now there's two ways of enjoying this verse. One is I will guide thee with thine eye.
With mine, I and it's been said it's an important thing if someone's going to guide us by their eye.
It takes two eyes to make contact, and so there's your eye upon himself and his eye upon you. And as you look to him, you will see in Him the guidance that you need for each day of life. And so if we're near him, we will enjoy that. The farther away, as it were, the distance, the greater the distance that we walk from Him, the more difficult perhaps to be able to discern His eye.
00:45:16
And his direction. But it's in the latter sense that I would like to leave with you more. And that is with mine, I.
Upon the, you know, a father and a mother, they put their eye on a child and they watch it carefully. And if it's going to get itself in danger, the mother or the father will step in and intervene in such a way that the child may be protected. And sometimes a wise parent will allow a child to do something that perhaps it's been told not to do, that it might learn.
Necessary lesson from it, and sometimes our Lord and His perfect wisdom allows that in our lives as well.
That we might learn and needed lesson, but still it's always with the sense of One whose eye is upon us because He loves us and because He's going to see that we are safely cared for until He comes and takes us to himself. He came.
And he gave his life. He suffered that Infinity of suffering.
In our place He redeemed us by his precious blood.
And he is, we are a gift that God has given to him that he values.
And now that you and I belong to him.
He has paid the price for us. He is going to guide us with His eye upon us safely until He comes again and gives that blessed shout and a shout to me of triumph of His own heart, and then His eye is going to look out upon the assembled company of those that He has redeemed.
He's going to look at a vast collection of those that he watched over with his eye upon them.
And the scripture tells us he shall see the fruit.
That garden of fruit he shall see the fruit of the travail.
Of his soul.
And shall be satisfied.
00:50:02
Much needed that we quench, not the spirit.
As we go on that we are in the current of thy will.
Whether it is to serve or it's to listen. And oh, how needful that is, our Father and our God. And so we pray that we each might have a conscious desire to be in accord with thy mind, to be LED of thy spirit in what we do. And we think too, of the lovely thought that thine eye is upon us.
Through the scene.
What a blessed place is ours and we thank you for it. Every encouragement, our God and Father.
So we asked thee to make these words good to our own souls, each one of us. As we continue in this building path, we thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
There will be refreshments served again, coffee the next room and the next meeting will be at 3:30.
Gospel
Gospel—R. Thonney
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#23 on our hymn sheets this evening to begin the meeting.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God on the cross for us. He shed his precious blood on the cross. Oh, hear the overwhelming cry.
Eli Lama, Sabachthani Dronier and See the Savior Die on the cross.
See, see his arms extended wide on the cross, Behold his bleeding hands and sighed on the cross. The sun withholds his rays of light. The heavens are clothed in shades of night, While Jesus wins the glorious fight.
On the cross #23.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God.
On the cross.
On the cross.
For us, seashell is precious blood.
On the cross.
On the cross.
Oh, they are.
Dilemma.
See. See, his heart extended.
Why?
On the ground.
On the cross.
The.
End.
And that's all.
Pray gracious God our Father, we're thankful for our Lord Jesus.
That glorious Savior, that one who came from Thy side in the glory to redeem us, to pay that awful price that we owed.
And Father, tonight we're here with the specific purpose of speaking the gospel. We're not sure exactly who in this room is truly a believer and who is not, but we know that everyone stands before thy presence, naked and open, exposed before thine eye and.
We do pray that tonight as we open thy word.
That's such a soul that is not yet ready to meet Thee. Blessed God, our Father will be brought to the feet of the Lord Jesus. We ask that Thy Spirit may have liberty in taking Thy word and pressing it home to the souls of those who are lost. We ask Thy blessing Father, not only in this place, but wherever that glorious message is preached in this world tonight.
Make it a blessing to lost souls. We pray in that most worthy name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Sing one more song #34.
Precious, precious blood of Jesus.
Shed on Calvary, Shed for rebels and for sinners.
Shed for me tonight I'd like to speak about redemption.
00:05:00
And the word redemption.
Has.
Perhaps we can say two thoughts connected with it #1.
A price that must be paid and 2nd.
The power to set free.
And so.
The price that has been paid for redemption.
Is what we're seeing about in this hymn Precious, Precious Blood of Jesus #34?
Precious, precious blood.
Over 4 centuries ago in.
Peru, South America.
The Spanish conquistadores arrived in the coast of Peru.
Conquered the Inca nation and in conquering the Incarnation to captive their leader, a man called Atawalpa.
They bargained, knowing that the Inca Indians of that part of Peru were extremely wealthy with gold and silver.
They bargained with Atawalpa and Ottawa offered so that they would let him go free.
To fill a room as high as he could reach. And he was not, evidently.
A small man, but as high as he could reach on the wall. He would fill that room once with gold and twice with silver.
That would be the price of his redemption.
The price so that he could go free.
The contract was made and the.
Information was given to the Inca people, and from all over the Andes they brought in quantities of gold and silver until they had done exactly that, filled that room twice, once with gold and twice with silver.
And the Spanish, of course, who were quite greedy.
Took all that and stored it away and after they had it all secured in their power.
They executed Atawalpa, they killed him.
The price was very high.
But the price, even though it was paid, there was a lack of power to set him free.
When I speak tonight about the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
I want to proclaim a redemption where the price has been fully paid.
And there is power to set you free.
But before I begin to speak about that, I want to address.
The need?
You know, Scripture speaks of those who do not know the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
As being lost.
It says in Luke chapter 19 and verse 10 the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Lust is an awful word really. Maybe some of you have been lost temporarily at one time or another, but you have after a while found your way back.
00:10:17
You have been found, maybe by someone else. Maybe you've found yourself.
But what's scary to me today is the fact that there is a lot of people in this world who think they're all right.
Who have no sense of their need before God, and I think there is a particular danger.
Of those who have been raised in Christian homes.
And who are not aware that without a personal transaction of faith.
With the Lord Jesus Christ, your loss. Loss.
One time I was traveling across the roads of Bolivia and I picked up a man who wanted a ride a little further on.
And I wanted to get to the gospel before he got out of the.
Vehicle a little further on South, I asked him straight across the board. Are you lost, Sir? Oh, no, Sir, I know where I am. I know exactly where we are, and I know where I want to get off to further down the road. I'm not lost, I said. Excuse me a minute. Supposing you would have to die tonight.
And you know that when death knocks at somebody's door.
You can beg a few more minutes of life to think it over, to get things straight.
Where would you go if you had to leave this world tonight?
And Passover beyond death.
He thought a little bit, He said, really, I don't know, I said, Sir, if you don't know where you're going, you're lost.
And I think there's a lot of people in this world today that are not aware that they're lost. And it really concerns me as I sit in these meetings.
And see young people.
Sitting there, sometimes occupied in other ways.
Are you lost?
Or have you dealt with this matter of your sins before God?
I'm looking out across this room tonight and I'd like to have your attention, please.
Are you lost?
Are you lost?
You know, today something was mentioned in one of the meetings about a movement that is very.
Common. Very prevalent in the world today. It's called the New Age movement.
Something was said about it originating several centuries before Christ.
I want to say it originated even earlier than that. You know where that New Age philosophy or religion originated. It originated in the Garden of Eden.
Where Satan came to Eve and said to her.
Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
We live in a society here in the United States of America.
Where man has become the center of his world.
Oh yeah, if you want to believe in God, you can. No problem.
You want to talk about God, that's all right. Go ahead and talk about God. But when it comes down to the.
Everyday affairs of life. Here's number one. I determine my life.
All have my say. I'll do what I want and don't you say anything about it to criticize me because I have my rights.
That is basically the New Age philosophy and its permeated American Society, and I don't think we realize how much this has affected the thinking of children and young people and older folks too.
When it comes to God, when it comes to His Word, when it comes to that future day of eternity.
It's not a matter of what I think. It's not a matter of your opinion.
It's a matter of what God says.
My idea doesn't have any validity. I may have my ideas, I'm not going to deny that.
00:15:01
But that is not the ground that we're talking about tonight.
We're talking about dealing with God on His terms.
Not your terms. And that's scary to me to see young people, sometimes children who dictate almost their terms to their parents.
If that's the character of your life, I want to ask you very seriously to consider.
Are you lost?
If a person doesn't realize he's lost, he's not going to appreciate.
The salvation we're going to talk about in the Lord Jesus tonight.
It's too bad that we have to take so much time instead of speaking directly about the salvation that's in Christ. It's important that you be awakened as to your soul's destiny, as to the condition you stand before God in. Sometimes, say if a man is out in the middle of a lake drowning, but he's unconscious, you can throw all the life preservers to him. You can't. You want he's not going to grab a hold of any of them.
Because he's not conscious of his need.
Are you aware of your needs? Have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior? Or is it just some form that you're going through? You come to the meetings very obediently.
Maybe you learn the verses in the Sunday school, but you never made it personal yourself.
You're sliding along maybe on your parents profession of faith. Is that the case with you?
I'm serious. I really want to get through to you tonight, wherever you're sitting.
Out there are you lost?
Are you lost? I want to talk about a Savior tonight. Who is the Redeemer? Let's read a verse first of all in the book of Romans chapter 3 that mentions this word redemption.
Chapter 3 of Romans.
And verse.
23 and 24.
Let's start with the end of verse 22.
There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by His grace.
Through the redemption, that is.
In Christ Jesus.
There's redemption.
But you must know your needs.
Speaking a little bit further about this matter of the new age.
It is amazing to me how it is permeated people's thinking. I was in a plane down in.
Bolivia, I think it was last year.
And beside me was quite a well dressed gentleman.
Older man.
And I gave him a little gospel pamphlet witherbound in Spanish.
And he politely read the booklet and handed it back to me.
And said I don't believe that anymore.
In the evolutionary scheme of things, he says.
We are on the edge of a quantum leap into the future.
And he says it's thrilling to see where humanity is going.
He was duped.
By a lie of Satan that is extremely common.
This is permeating the educational world where you young people have to.
Make your way through. Many times it's permeated.
But it's a lie of Satan to get people to think that they're all right, that they don't have any need. I want to tell you if you're without the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are lost. You need the redemption that is.
In Christ Jesus, as I was mentioning before, redemption has two thoughts to it.
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A price that must be paid.
And also power to set free it's.
Buying back to set free, that's the sense of redemption.
The Lord Jesus paid the price on the cross of Calvary.
When John the Baptist looked at the Lord Jesus one day.
He said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Several years later, that Lamb of God was nailed.
To a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. They led him out, they stretched out those hands, they nailed him to the cross. They lifted him up on that cross and he hung there for three hours. He was the object of man's mockery.
But then at 12 noonday.
The sun was darkened and for three hours.
It was dark until 3:00 PM on that hill of Calvary.
Outside the city of Jerusalem.
In those three hours, nobody could contemplate what was taking place.
But Scripture is clear what happened during those three hours.
Isaiah, the prophet says he was wounded. For our transgressions. He was bruised.
For our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him.
The iniquity of us all. Yes, in those three hours of darkness, God laid.
My filthy Lord of sins on the head of that spotless.
Sacrifice the Lord Jesus and all the judgment.
That was due to fall upon me, and rightly so.
Fell on the Lord Jesus in my place. He took my place.
He paid the price in full at the end of those three hours.
Of darkness.
He cried before he gave up his life.
It is finished all the judgment that was against me.
As a guilty Sinner, it's gone. It's gone. Jesus died.
And after he died, a soldier came up.
The hill to make sure those that were crucified were dead.
And he broke the legs of a thief that was on one side, and then a thief that was on the other side of Jesus.
And when he came to Jesus, he saw that he was dead already. He didn't break his legs.
He took his spear and plunged it into the side of Jesus.
Oh, what a price. What a price.
And out of that side flowed blood and water.
The testimony that life had been given.
Jesus blood was shed.
We are redeemed, Peter the Apostle says, not with corruptible things as silver and gold.
But with the precious blood of Christ, the price.
Has been paid in full. God is satisfied.
With what has been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary, how can I know that?
I say, my friend, if God had not been satisfied, he would never have raised Jesus from the dead.
The fact that he raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in the glory.
Is testimony to the fact that God is satisfied with the price paid. It's important that the price of redemption be paid.
Was just recent, more recently in Peru.
Some of you may have heard of it in the.
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Residents of the ambassador from Japan.
They were having a celebration celebrating the birthday of the Emperor of Japan.
And, well, there were many heads of state and.
Many important people there.
The Tupac Amaro guerrillas.
Took the compound and held hostage a number of people, important people. They let a number loose.
But their demand, the price that they wanted for the release of those hostages.
Was freedom for their comrades that were in Peruvian prisons?
The price was never paid.
The price was never paid.
There was power later on the Peruvian government, then a raid of commandos in killed every one of those guerrillas.
Two of the commandos died in the rescue attempt.
But the hostages were released. I believe one died afterwards from a heart attack. But the price was not paid. It's important that the price be paid. The price has been paid, my friend. Dear young people, dear children, dear older folks too. The price has been paid in full. Jesus paid it all. How?
With his precious blood on the cross of Calvary, just to think of it.
It was no mere man that paid the price so that I could be free.
It was the very Son of God from heaven, the Creator of all things.
Came to this world, became flesh.
He took on him a human body, God, as God cannot die.
But to be able to pay the price of our redemption, he took.
A human body so that he could die and pay that price. Just to think it was God himself in Christ who paid that price for your redemption and mine.
But why is it that so many still are captives to sin?
Are not set free. They haven't heard the message perhaps.
They haven't believed it. How tragic to think that there are people in this room who have heard the gospel again and again.
And still have not accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
Again, I want to probe into your heart to ask you very seriously.
Have you dealt with this question with God?
I think it's extremely important.
A year and a half I go down in Bolivia.
We're at a conference. We were.
Taking up the subject of the Lord's coming, forget what chapter exactly it was.
But there was.
An older lady.
Who came up after the meeting?
And I recognized her.
She was.
What we a sister in one of the meetings over in the eastern section of the country.
She was baptized. She was in fellowship.
But she said to me with tears in her eyes, she said, you know.
I'm not ready. I'm not ready.
When I first started coming to the meeting, I didn't understand what people were saying.
It didn't make sense, but I just did what they told me to do.
But I'm not ready.
She says. I want to get it straight right now.
And she accepted the Lord as her Savior right then.
The fact that you are here and perhaps you're baptized, perhaps you're at the Lord's Table.
If you have not dealt with the matter of your sins before God, you are not ready.
And I want to ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus tonight to get ready.
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Don't.
Puts your faith in any outward conformity to what brethren may have told you.
Rest solely on what God rests upon.
The shed blood of Jesus.
There is abundant power to save you.
From your sins there is abundant power.
In the Old Testament there is a story of God.
Earthly people, Israel when they were.
Slaves in the land of Egypt. I'd like to go back to Exodus chapter 12 please.
There were slaves in the land of Egypt, and God had sent Moses back to Egypt.
To take his people out of the land of Egypt. He had plagued that land because Pharaoh would not let his people go. One plague after another fell on the land of Egypt until that land was completely devastated. And at the end, God said there's one more plague. I'm going to stand on the land of Egypt. And that was the plague of death to the first born.
In every home in Egypt, and since death is the wages of sin.
God could not make a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites.
Because the Israelites were sinners as well as the Egyptians and many of the other plagues God sent.
He sent upon the Egyptians and not upon the Israelites. But this last plague there had to be.
Death in every single home in Egypt as well.
The Egyptians as well as the Israelites, there had to be death in every single home. Let's read a few verses here in chapter 12 of Exodus.
The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, In this month shall be.
Unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year. To you speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying in the 10th month.
10th day of this month. They shall take to them every man a lamb.
According to the House of their fathers, a lamb foreign house, and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor.
Next unto the his house take it according to the number of the soul. Every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You shall take it out from the sheep or from the goat, and you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts.
And on the upper doorpost of the houses, wherein they shall eat it, and they shall eat the flesh that night.
Roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs. Shall they eat it?
Verse 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are, and when I see the blood.
I will Passover you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you.
When I smite the land of Egypt. So here's this last plague.
But God to save his people, Israel provided that death.
Could take place in the form of an acceptable sacrifice.
An acceptable substitute and I say, my friend, God has provided a substitute in the Lord Jesus. Here we find that it was a lamb figurative of the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. It was taken out on the 10th day of the month. It was kept up until the 14th day of that month for four days. It was observed to make sure there was no defect in that lamb.
Figurative of the 4000 years that transpired between Adam.
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And Christ and God was looking at the whole human race to see if there was one.
Who did not?
Transgress. He didn't find one.
Then God brought forth his Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent into this world, the Lamb of God.
And that lamb, on the 14th day of that first month, was killed.
And its blood was taken and applied to the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses where they were to eat that lamb. I just want to apply this very specially.
I'm sure that everyone here in this room knows the story of the death of Jesus.
I'm sure that many here could tell me just as well as I can tell this story tonight.
Of salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus.
The knowledge that Jesus died is not enough.
That lamb was slain. Its blood was caught in a basement.
That wasn't sufficient. It had to be applied.
And it must be applied on an individual ground.
Work with everyone of you. Have you taken what Jesus has done?
For you yourself, how do you do that? What is necessary for you to do?
I was asked a little over a couple years ago by a young man in Bolivia.
Who came over and asked me what he had to do to be saved. It was a joy to turn him to that verse that was mentioned.
Today in John chapter one and verse 12 to as many as received him.
To them gave thee power to become the sons of God, to them that believed on his name.
And I said to him as I read that verse, he was a young law student.
University in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
And I said, you look at that verse, what does it say you have to do to receive Christ? And he looked at it for a while and then he said.
Believe on his name, I said Exactly. I want you to get that clear. You want you can pray, but it doesn't come through praying. It comes through believing on his name.
It doesn't come through any other means but simply by.
Be leaving on his name.
Accepted the Lord as his Savior. The work was real in his soul.
It's not that difficult, dear young person, but it's a very personal matter that you must do yourself. It's extremely important that you understand that you must apply it.
Here in the matter of what took place in Egypt.
It was the father of the family that made sure that that blood was on the House, on the doors of the house where they were to eat that lamb. What a responsibility for those of us who are fathers of families. But the time comes when you young people reach your own age of responsibility and you must make the decision is that blood been applied?
Is what Jesus did made real in my own heart and soul? Have I accepted it?
Have I received Christ by believing on His name?
Have you done it? That was important for as the.
Lord pass through the land of Egypt that night, and as he went from house to house.
There was only one question to be asked.
Didn't ask. Are these people nice people in this house? Are these people kind of ornery people?
That was not the question.
There was only one consideration.
Is there blood on the door?
There was blood on the door. They went passed right over that house to the next house.
Is there blood on the door? No blood inside. Went that destroying Angel.
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To kill the first born.
What a serious matter.
And I know a lot of you people.
Pretty nice people here, I enjoy your company.
That's not the question that we're talking about tonight. The question is, has the blood been applied?
Not if you're a nice person, you've got a nice personality, you've done a lot of good for people.
That's not the question at all. It's a question has the blood.
Been applied and as that destroying Angel went through the land of Egypt.
There was only that one question.
Is there blood on the door or is there not that made?
All the difference in the world and as we approach the judgment of this world.
Which the Lord Jesus said is going to be the most severe judgment that this world has ever seen.
I don't think people realize that we are right on the very edge.
Of the time of the worst judgment this world has ever seen, or will ever see afterwards.
That's what the Lord Jesus said about it.
And there's only only one place of safety.
It's beneath the blood, the shelter of the blood of Jesus.
That sword of judgment fell on Jesus.
He bore that full penalty.
For my sins, Christ has redeemed us from the curse.
Of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written curse. It is every man that hangeth on a tree.
He paid the price it's paid. Are you standing there, dear young person?
I'm really concerned the Lord could come at any moment and I'm not sure that this room would be empty.
If the Lord came tonight, I'm afraid that there might be some people sitting here.
In their seats.
If the Lord King right now at 7:45.
There is still time to come to the Lord Jesus.
In simplicity to trust him to come under.
The shelter of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.
And so the price was paid, the blood of the lamb was shed.
But now the people of Israel were leaving the land of Egypt. The Egyptians thrust them out.
They said we're all dead. People get going and they thrust them out and.
The Israelites left Egypt and they come to the borders of the Red Sea. Chapter 14, please.
Of Exodus as well.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before.
Pai he haiya between Migdal and the sea over against Baal Zephon.
Before it shall ye encamp by the sea. And Israel will say of the children of Israel they are. And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel. They are entangled in the land. The wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his hosts. The Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt, that the people fled.
The heart of Pharaoh and of his servants were turned against the people, and they said, why have we done this, that we have led Israel go.
From serving us. And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with them.
And took 600 chosen Chariots and all the Chariots of Egypt and captains over everyone of them.
And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel.
The children of Israel went out with a high hand, but the Egyptians pursued after them.
All the horses and Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army.
And overtook them, encamping by the sea beside.
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Before Bales Ivan. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us?
To carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, let us alone?
That we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians.
Then that we should die in the wilderness? You would ask these poor Israelites at this juncture.
Are you saved? What would they have said? No.
They would say, can't you see there comes Pharaoh to take us back.
To enslave us again in Egypt.
Oh, redemption has a second part. It's with power.
It's a price that was paid. The price had been paid. They were saved from the wrath of God that was going to fall on the first born in the land of Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. But there was another thing that had to be taken into account. It was redemption by power. And so here they are beside the Red Sea.
Afraid, crying, wishing that they were back in Egypt.
That a picture of our unbelieving heart.
When we get into difficulties.
What does Moses say?
Verse.
13 Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not stand.
Still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today. Ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.
But lift up, lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it.
And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea, and I behold, I will harden.
The hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his hosts, upon his.
Chariot, and upon his horsemen.
Though they were commanded to March, and Moses lifted up his rod, that rod of judgment.
And there was a pathway made right through the sea, something completely supernatural. Who has ever seen a wall of water on one side and a wall on the other side through AC? But that's what took place that time. And the children marched across the Red Sea on dry ground. Oh, what a victory the Lord Jesus has won for us in his death. There is not death for the believer in the Lord Jesus.
In fact, Scripture doesn't even use that word in the New Testament, it is used as.
Sleep.
There is no death for the believer in the Lord Jesus. A believer does not die. Death may touch his body, but he does not die. He goes directly into the presence of the Lord Jesus, absent from the body, present with the Lord, consciously in the enjoyment of the Lord's presence.
And so the children of Israel passed right across from that dry ground to the other side.
There they were, and the Egyptians followed right after them.
Let's read what takes place here to the Egyptian.
Verse 24 The Lord came to pass that in the morning watched the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire.
And of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily.
So that the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord.
For them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians.
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Upon their Chariots and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned.
To his strength, when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled against it, And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea, and the waters returned, and covered the chariot, and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as one of them, but the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea.
And the waters were a wall unto them, on their right hand, and on their left hand.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead.
Upon the seashore, and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
The people feared the Lord and believed the Lord in his servant Moses.
What a tremendous victory.
After the children of Israel passed through these people that had been their slave masters.
Came in after them, to pursue after them, and in the midst of the ocean.
Or the Red Sea. The Lord took off those chariot wheels and they realized they were in trouble, but before they could get out of that sea.
Moses stretches out his rod again, and the sea returns to its strength.
All those Egyptians were completely destroyed, and I want to tell you, dear young people.
This is something that Satan does not want you to believe. He wants you to still to believe that Satan is in power in this world and that you have to deal with his power. But I want to tell you, Satan has been completely defeated in the death of the Lord Jesus.
Not only has God been satisfied with the price of redemption that Jesus paid on the cross of Calvary, but.
All the enemies, every single one that was against us.
Is gone and gone forever. Satan wants to get sometimes Christians to believe.
That he still has power and he is a powerful enemy. I'm not saying he's not powerful.
But I want to tell you Satan is a defeated foe.
And he doesn't want you to believe it.
He is a defeated foe. All are fools have been defeated. Every one of them is gone as far as God is concerned and is for you and me to simply believe that they're gone and gone forever. They were redeemed. Not only was the price paid, but they were brought out by the power of God.
And sat on the other side of death and judgment.
What do they do next? They sing verse chapter 15, verse one.
They sang, then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song, and to the Lord and spake I will sing.
Unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
Oh, and a picture of the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
The victory has been won two.
1000 years ago. It is amazing to me to see how many.
Christians today still.
Think that Satan has real power over their lives.
And if he can believe, get you to believe it.
He will affect you.
But my young friend, my older friend too, I want to ask you to simply believe God tonight.
Every soul that was against us has been destroyed.
Satan power has been an old.
And we are free. We are free.
In 03 know it better.
To sing his praises. And I want to sing that song. I will sing of my Redeemer. But I want to, before we close, add one final warning.
The price has been paid.
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God's power.
Is mighty. We've been talking about God's power today.
He is able to save you tonight, but He will not force anyone against their will. If you set your will against the will of God, you must deal with God about the question of your sins yourself. And for those who will not have the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, they will meet this one.
Who is the Redeemer?
Sitting They die in their sins, sitting on a great.
White Throne, no blood there, no mercy.
But to have the books opened to be judged everyone according to their works.
And it says there's another book there at that final judgment, the Book of Life.
And in that book are written the name of all those who have.
Trusted in the Lord Jesus.
And it says after they were judged according to those things written in the books.
Then there is that Book of Life and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I think it's so awful, the word that is used.
Picture of a soul standing there before God. No place to flee.
The heavens and the earth are gone, only that great white throne.
And the Lord Jesus who sits on that throne, and the soul who stands there in evidence.
Guilt before is God.
People talk about answering God when they get to the judgment seat.
They will have nothing to answer. Their guilt will be so tremendously evident.
But then the search is made in the book of life.
And that person's name is not found in the Book of Life.
What is the end?
Whosoever was not found written in the book of life.
Was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Is pictured in my own mind he.
Gospel
Gospel—K. Harman
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Me to the Book of Kings.
Second Kings Chapter 5A well known portion and I don't suppose I'm going to say anything different that hasn't been said before on this portion.
But you know the word, the gospel that is presented tonight as the same gospel it was presented 2000 years ago, perhaps in a little few different words, But the basis of the gospel is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The basis of it is that God loves you and he wants you to be saved.
And, you know, it's a solemn thing to stand here tonight. Well, I often think of this, you know.
That God would put his word into the hands of feeble men.
To proclaim the wisdom of God to you and to me, to lost souls to help us to. To allow us to. To be a vessel To portray His grace to you and to me. Poor feeble creatures that need salvation ourselves. But He has seen fit to do that. How wonderful this is to think that we can have this opportunity in this world of handling this precious book.
Presenting it the gospel to those who are in need.
And and to to be able to stand here as those who are workers together with God, as it were.
But a wonderful thing to think of. But you know, have you ever stopped to think how much God loves you?
Have you ever stopped to think of what brought the Lord Jesus down to this world? You know the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. He is gone, manifest in the flesh. Your Creator and mine came down into this world.
And he became a man in order that he might die for the sins of you and me.
Do you realize how much what what caused him to do that?
You realize how much he loves you and how much he loves me in order to do something like that.
And you know that he cares tonight about what you do with his word, all we had before us last night. It's not it's, it's to to believe in the word of God, to believe what he has said. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
First of all, you believe that God is, and now you believe what he says. And God says that you are lost and you're on your road to hell. And he knows that. He knows that, and he's telling you this because he said his son into this world. In order that you might not have to go there. In order I might not have to go there.
We have this book in our hands tonight that gives us the revealed word of God, and what you do with this book, what I do with it, determines where we will spend eternity. Well, it's not a book that we can take, and we can read it like any textbook and put it down and forget about it. You read this book and you're responsible, my friend, for every word that you have read in this book and every time you have heard it preached.
These are songs. It's a living word of God. It's not a dead book.
Like your textbook, Perhaps it is out of date before it's even off the press.
How solemn to think that we can be under the Word of God and be in His presence, for the eye of God is upon you and me here tonight.
And He knows every heart that is here. He can look right into your heart. Why are you here tonight? And if you're here and you're still lost, just like was brought before you last night, if you were here lost, and you dare to come back again and in that same condition, oh, God is beseeching you. God has been gracious to give you another opportunity.
And this might be the last opportunity. We don't know. You know the.
I suppose every gospel meeting is that ever proclaimed can be said. This may be the last gospel meeting, and it may be it may be.
Well, let's turn to chapter 5, Second Kings, and read this little account of a man who was a very great man. And there are many great men in this world tonight.
Perhaps there's great men in this room that is great in their own eyes.
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When you stand revealed before God, naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom you have to do, how great are you?
How great are you the haughtiness of men. The loftiness of men shall be made low. The haughtiness, The haughtiness of man shall we brought down. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. You stand before Him naked and open in all your sins.
And in all your deeds that you have ever done or ever thought, God knows about them in order for you to be in His presence.
You must have them washed away.
You know God is of Coop, your eyes that cannot behold iniquity. He can't look. He can't have you and me in his presence. It's the holiness.
Of God.
Are you fit tonight, my friend? Can you set? Can you say that I can stand in the presence of God in all His Holiness, and I can tell God how great I am?
I had a man told me that once.
And it made me shake to think of it not man as an eternity tonight, because he lost it only a barely a year after that. But he told me that he could stand. He was going to was willing to stand before God and tell him how great he was. Can you imagine that?
Terrible. When you stand before God and all your filthiness and all your ranks, your you will be speechless. But all my friend, you can stand before him in the righteousness of Christ instead of your own righteousness. How dare you? How dare I think that I can stand before God in my righteousness, in your righteousness. Never, never, never.
One sin will shut you out of His presence.
How many do you have? Every day that goes by, every moment that goes by, your sins mount up one upon another upon another, and they have separated you from God. One sin that separates you from God? Just think of all the sins that are upon you tonight.
Can you stand before God in your righteousness? All our righteousness is ours. Filthy rags.
Well, that's your condition and that's mine by nature. But I can tell you tonight that I can stand before God, not in my righteousness, but in the righteousness that I have in Christ, for He is my righteousness.
Be yours too, my friend. Don't be so proud. Don't be so haughty. Don't be so lofty.
Well, here's a great man in chapter 5. Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper, and the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid.
And she waited on Naaman's wife, and she said unto her mistress, What God, my Lord, we're with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in and told his Lord, saying.
Thus and thus said the Mane.
That is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him.
10 talents of silver and 6000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of raiment.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God to kill and to make a life, that this man descend unto me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so when Elisha the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes.
That he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah. And Elijah sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash and Jordan 7 times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold.
I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and call in the name of the Lord is God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not a Bannon far for rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage, and his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather than when he set to thee wash and be clean?
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Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God.
And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean, and he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naman said, Shall there not then I pray thee, be given to thy servant to mules burden of earth?
For thy servant will henceforth offer neither bird offering, nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.
In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goeth into the House of rimmen.
To worship there. And he leaneth on his hand. And I bow myself in the House of Remen. When I bow down myself in the House of Remen, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.
And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
Well, as we've seen here, this name was a very, very great man. He was a very exalted man.
He had been used by the Lord, it says. Now you say, how's that? Was that Israel, the people of God? Yes, but the Lord used Syria to punish, to discipline his people, and as a result this little maid was carried away captive into Syria.
And so there she is, in this land where she is a stranger.
But she remembers the God of Israel, and she loved the God of Israel, and she spoke about the God of Israel. Any children here today that are afraid to talk about the Lord, speak up. And that should be the same for any of us. Because you don't know where it's going to stop. This little woman, this little maid. She spake up and it got right down into the King's palace. How? Well, God took care of that, didn't he? And you know, I don't know why you're here tonight.
But perhaps.
Someone spoke to you about coming here tonight, and perhaps it was God. It was God that put this into your heart to be here. You would say, no, I came on my own. Of course I came on my own. No, I say God sent you here tonight.
Just as God sent this man Niamh into the very doorstep of Elisha.
Well, it looks like circumstances were such that that it was a king of Syria that did all of this, but.
It was the Lord, it says, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. And then she speaks about about the.
This prophet.
That was in Samaria and.
We read down here how that it was the Lord that.
That he turned to and speaks of the man of God. And so you see, God was in all this and.
Just like he is in everything concerning your life and mine.
You know, you and I can look back on circumstances in our lives as opposed, and we wonder why it turned out that way.
Don't forget that God is over all.
Don't forget that God is working in your life and in my life. And first of all, He wants you to come to the knowledge of Himself that you might realize how great He is, how much He loves you, and how much He loves me. You know, when we're great in our own eyes, we can't see anything else.
We are great in our own eyes. We don't see how great God is, and we don't want anyone else but ourselves. This man Naaman had everything going for him. He was. He had as it were. He was one that had gotten right to the top and there were many, no doubt, that envied this man.
To think that he was captain of the host. Here he was right next to the king himself.
He was, overall, he was a great man. He had defeated in their eyes, he he had defeated the enemy. And so we can see Naaman walking down the streets of Damascus, perhaps after his victory, and there are many there that were hailing him as a great man. He would be riding on his chariot and they would be cheering him on.
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Cheering him for all his accomplishments, a great man in his master's eyes and in the eyes of everybody else. Perhaps you are here tonight in the same position. It's hard for you to come down. You know. It's hard for us to come down when we are great in our own eyes. But don't forget, God can humble you. God will bring down the loftiness of man, and the Lord himself will be exalted in that day. So humble yourself now before God. Don't sit there and think how.
How great you are. And that like this man Naman, how he had everything fixed, formulated in his own mind, how everything was going to take place. But you know, there's a problem with Mammon. And it was one that he could not overcome himself. It was one that he was at a loss to do anything about.
He was a leopard.
He was a leper. He had that terrible, terrible disease that just ate away at you, and little by little, little by little, you just decayed and you finally died.
You know this, this disease of leprosy all through the Scriptures is a type of sin. It's not what you and I can do nothing about. We may be great in this world's eyes. We may be great in our own sight. We may have people envy us our position. You may have lots of money like Naomi did, but you're a leper. You can't do anything about it. And if you don't have something, take have it taken care of, my friend.
It's going to finally end you in a lost eternity.
These are solemn things that this book lay out to us very, very faithfully.
So here was a man who had everything going for him, who had all the money that he no doubt could use in order if there was a cure, he would be able to find it. Reminds me of this woman.
In the book of Mark, this chapter I believe, where she had an issue of blood for 12 years and she she sought out many physicians and she spent all that she had. She only grew worse, nothing better, only grew worse. And no, no doubt Naaman had spent much money trying to find a remedy for his sin. And so what's all the words this is but he was a leper.
I was reading.
Up on the wall there today. All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Is that right? All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Man's wisdom.
There is a man by the name of.
Of.
Charlie.
Umm, his last name just escaped me.
He was one of the first astronauts that went on the moon. I don't know why I should forget, I just heard the story.
But perhaps you've heard the story yourself. His name was Charlie, in a way, and he was the first man, one of the first men that landed on the moon.
That was his dream. That was his dream. He pursued that with all the intensity of his youth and he trained for it. He was going to be great. And and so he finally got there.
He got to that point where he was chosen to be an astronaut and when he finally got to that place, there he was strapped in his capsule and and he landed. He went to the moon, he went to the moon. Nobody else has ever had that accomplishment at that point. So he was somebody when he came back to Earth.
He was very important and as they went down the down the streets of New York and the ticker tape parade, he was waving to everybody and everybody. There were many that envied him.
He had. Well, he had.
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Importance. He was had prestige, he had position and he was only 36 years old.
And he got into the top, not only to the top, but he got into the moon.
And back again.
And so he thought that everything was.
Was.
Going to be all right from there.
He reached it and he got to all his expectations.
But you know what? He was a leper.
And when he came back, his wife thought, now I'm going to see. Now he will give up all these expectations and he will he will spend more time with me and we will have a happy life because their marriage was going down the tube.
Instead of that, it got worse, degenerated, degenerated, generated until it got to the point where she was going to commit suicide.
And he hardly spent any time at home. He was after money. He tried this and he tried that and never satisfied. Yes, he was a leper.
And he pursued his dreams, and he reached them.
But it never brought happiness. And it won't with you, my friend. It won't with me. There's only there's one one thing that's missing. The purpose for what you and I have been made is not to pursue our dreams.
We have been made to glorify God.
And if you leave him out of your life?
There is no way on God's earth that you will ever find true happiness.
Never.
I'm going to tell you another story. I've told it before, maybe you know it already and forgive me for mentioning it again, but I always, I can't help but think of the grace of God.
In how he deals with hearts and souls.
You know, God is working out there. God is working in hearts and consciences tonight.
And I would trust and pray that He is working in your soul tonight, that you have come here not just to fill a seat, but that you have come here because.
You have not found satisfaction for your heart and you want to.
And I want to tell you tonight that God in the Lord Jesus will satisfy you beyond.
All expectations.
And this Charlie found it. By the grace of God, his wife was saved and he was saved later. And they together have gone on to serve the Lord. And this man who walked on the moon now walks with God, and he has found his satisfaction in that and his happiness. His marriage was saved, his life was turned around, and he can do the same thing for you.
And I was thinking of another man who was the third top man in the mafia.
He was a murderer.
He was a killer, he was an extortioner, He was everything that you can think of that they are in the underworld. He was someone who perhaps was envied by his own peers because he was second to the top man in the mafia. His father, his grandfather, had brought it over to this country and so he was very great.
He had. He got to the point where he was absolutely.
Fearless and he was rich. He got at the.
Snap of his finger. He could. He could make millions.
He had his own jets, he had his own crew, he had everything that that he ever could imagine.
But he wasn't happy.
And this man went on, went from one place to another place, trying to find happiness.
And one day he was invited to a church service.
And there this man.
Put his hand on his shoulder and he said, Tom.
The first time I laid eyes on you, I saw a little boy who wanted to be loved.
Bingo, that hit him right in the heart.
And this man, he didn't let on that he knew that he had hit the spot that no one else had ever thought was there because he had not shed a tear in 30 years. He was so hard. The last one, absolutely the last one that anyone would think would be come a servant of God. Does that remind you of the apostle Paul? Does me? Yes, it does.
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And this man?
Could say I'm going to kill him, he's found my weakness.
And so he came back to kill him that night at his office, and the man sat him down and he said, Do you know Jesus?
And he said, you know who I am.
Sounds like naman, doesn't it? Great man.
And he's too proud to come down.
And he began to tell him the story, his story. Had he never told anybody else? You know, the mafia, they don't tell anybody anything.
Except their own. But he told him. He began to tell him everything about him that he had ever done in this man just listened, and the next thing he knew he was on his knees crying.
Crying. The grace of God had broken him down, and the man was.
Was crying.
And God saved his soul.
And he gave up all his millions and left him with the clothes on his back. And to make a Long story short, you've probably heard the story, but I can't help but tell it because it shows the grace of God.
And it shows what he can do with your heart if he can do that with Tom Papania's heart.
And this man LED those that tried to kill him to the Lord.
In prison.
Well, many details have been gone over, but that is the long and the short of it. This man, by the grace of God, was picked up from that place of the worst kind that ever could be. Paul could call himself the chief of sinners. This man, I'm sure, empathize with the Apostle Paul.
And he didn't come there seeking for God.
He came there to try and maintain his secret.
That he was a hard that really he wanted someone to love him because his father beat him from a boy.
And so he went, he he wasn't looking for God, but God was looking for him. And he led him to that place where this man of God took him and had compassion on him and brought him in.
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard him. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isn't that no? Is that not what he did? Yes.
He did it to him, and how many more we could talk about that have found Christ that were great men?
But they were lepers.
You don't have to be a great man either to be a leper.
Because we're all lepers. We're all we're all born in sin and shape and iniquity in God wants you and he wants me to come into his house. House.
Is filling fast yet? There is room. There's room for you tonight. There's room for those that are not looking for it. But God is a seeking God.
And the Lord Jesus is out there tonight, and he's saying to you and he's saying to you.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.
This Tom had never seen. He never knew what it was to have peace. He was always on the run.
But from the moment that that happened to him, he said the peace that he had been seeking just came in and filled his heart. And of course, they had to get rid of him, didn't they?
Anybody that leaves up organization?
Is going to be gotten rid of somehow. But they never touched him. Instead of that, God took care of them.
Just like God took care of Namans boss.
Demons. His. His.
The king of Syria, his master. We read that a little later. But anyway, anyway, to get back to our story here, this little, this man was a was a mighty man that says he was great, he was honorable, he was mighty.
All these things that man loves to glory in, but he was a leper.
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And now we get this little Syrian, this little Israelite is made and she comes, she says.
Oh, you know, Namma, she must have had a great affection for Naman. Naman, I understand, I would believe was a gentleman. He was an honorable man, it says, and in his house he was. This little maid loved him, and she loved his soul. You and I loved the soul of a Sinner, You know God loves your soul, and He loves it so much that He sent the darling of his bosom, His Son, down into this world.
In order to go to that cruel cross, to bleed and to dawn.
For your sins and for mine.
Does that affect you?
Does that mean anything to you? Does it mean anything to you fellas over here? Girls? Does it?
Do we can we look at Calvary Cross and not be affected?
Can we, can we look there and hear that cry? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why did he forsake? Why did he forsake his beloved Son? Would you forsake yours?
He forsaken that you and I might not be forsaken, my friend.
Oh, how wonderful to think of Calvary, to think of that awful scene. There. We're gone.
Laid on his beloved son's stroke upon stroke, the judgment that you and I deserved.
How awful to think what it would be like for you and I to go out into a lost eternity but for the grace of God. That's where I was heading, and that's where you're heading tonight if you're out of Christ.
That's where this man Naaman was. He was a Syrian. He wasn't even of the children of Israel.
And he was also a leper.
And so he was in great need.
Though he had all that man could himself could dream about, he had fulfilled.
His dreams, he had the courage to pursue them.
But he was a leper.
So he had nothing, didn't he? He was going to die. He was going to have to leave all that behind. And my friend, tonight you will have to leave everything that you have ever gone after in this world. You're going to have to leave it behind sooner or later.
For we must leave this world.
So she told her. She told her.
Umm, she said all that would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying thus, and thus said to the Maid, that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go, well, how did the king of Syria hear this? As little maid just spoke it to her mistress, and her mistress told it to her Master, and her Master told it to somebody else, and somebody else told it to the king.
God was in the whole in the whole thing, wasn't he? And you know, if you're serious, my friend, if you are in earnest, God will make sure that you hear the gospel.
This man was serious. I mean, he was so serious that we see that he took a long, long journey by horse and chariot. You know, it was about I, I'm not sure whether I'm accurate in this, but I would have estimated be about 180 miles from Damascus down the city of Samaria. It was about 30 miles from Samaria over to the River Jordan and from Samaria to Jordan. And so from Damascus down to Jordan it was 150 miles, perhaps give or take a little, but it was a long journey.
In those days, by horse and by chariot, he had to drive very furiously to get there.
But he was in earnest, and I would hope that there is someone here that if you're still in your sins, you're in earnest, that earnest about your your condition, that you would get serious with God. And you know, if you're really serious, he'll see to it that you hear the word.
That's what I'm here for tonight.
Are you listening?
She knew how he was to be healed. She knew where to get it.
We know how you can be healed. We know where you can get it. We're telling you that tonight, and you've probably heard it before many, many times, but you're like this man and we'll get to it a little later. Maybe was running ahead of it a little bit, but.
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This man, you know, had to cross this this river, he had to cross it three times.
How many times have you bypassed the way of salvation? How many times have you come to that point and you have gone right over it?
Hasn't meant anything to you? How many times have you heard the gospel and you have despised it?
This man Naman had to cross the Jordan to get to Samaria.
If you were hearing the gospel meeting last night, you crossed the Jordan once.
You know, Jordan is a little picture of death in some aspects. It says in Jeremiah that if I was brought if I was run with the with the.
With the.
We'll have to read it. Jeremiah chapter. Let's just read that. Jeremiah chapter 13. If thou hast run with the footmen, chapter 13 and verse five, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trust us, they wear thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:00 and 5:00.
In other words, when everything goes well with you.
What's it going to be like for you in a time of difficulty?
And if everything is in this land, wherein thou, trust is all peace.
And yet you get worried and you don't. You can't find your way. What's it going to be like?
In the time of death.
If God sees that.
You to that point where you will have to go through death.
And you will.
How will it be in the swallowing of Jordan for you?
So the king of Syria said, Go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him six tones of silver, 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of Raymond.
Well, he had spent much, as I said before, on trying to get.
No doubt it's not told this year, but no doubt he had all the.
He had everything at his disposal that he could find, every physician that ever was.
To try and get healed. But now when he hears of this, he's going to take all this money with him and.
And, you know, that's the way that souls are. They think that they think that salvation can be bought. They think that the only way that they can get rid of their sins is that if they do some great thing.
And so they will go, and they will confess their sins to the priest, and they will give them some money and and think that it's all taken care of.
But that's not what we find in the Word of God. That man will go out and he will commit another sin. And what about that? Who takes care of that? He has to go back and face more money. That means nothing to God.
His money will perish with him.
And so he takes all this money and he goes, and he was told to go to the prophet that was in Samaria. Where does he go? He goes to the king.
Goes to the key. He was going to go right to the top.
And so that's the way it is, you know, with souls, they don't, they will go, they, they will circumvent all the, the proper way of getting, getting help for their souls. But they wanted to do it in their way. They want to do it in a, in a, in a distinctive way. They want to do it in a way that caters to their pride. And you know, that's what the law does to to a man, The law, the law deals. You know, what speaks about, about men?
It gives them something to do.
And it caters to their pride that if they can accomplish the law.
And they feel good.
And if they don't fulfill it quite right, it makes them feel bad. But the devil whispers in their ear and says.
It doesn't matter because God is so loving and kind that He knows you did the best you could.
And so the law speaks about man, but it also condemns him.
Because there's no man that has ever kept the law that has walked the face of this earth other than the Son of Man.
The Son of God.
So if you're trying tonight, my friend, to get to get to get rid of your sins or to get to heaven.
By keeping some part of the law. I'm going to tell you tonight that if you don't keep it all.
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You're guilty of it all. If you follow one point, you're guilty of it all.
And you have to realize that it's it's.
As we get in the 4th chapter of Romans, let's just turn to that. I'm going to read it instead of trying to quote it again.
Romans, chapter 4.
And verse 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
You're trying to work your way to heaven. Don't don't forget there's going to be counted to you for death. Because if you're trying to do that according to the law, you're guilty of the whole thing. If you're not going to keep it, keep it all. If you're not going to, if you're going to fail in one point, you're guilty of it all.
So it's death and your debts pile up, and they pile up and they pile up. What are you going to do?
You become more and more miserable.
And you turn to this, and you turn to that, and you try and find happiness and rest for your soul. Meanwhile the Lord Jesus says, Come unto me, and you shall find rest unto your soul.
But you don't like to hear that. I want to try something else 1St. And so this man went to the king of Assyria, of Assyria rather.
Instead of going to the prophet, the little maid said go to the prophet.
That is in Samaria. He will heal the of his life, heal him of his leprosy. It's a simple gospel, I tell you tonight, my friend, come on to me, the Lord Jesus said, and I will give you rest.
I've died for me. I shed my blood that you might have your sins washed away. That's the gospel. God so loved the world. He so loved you and he so loved me. Yes, he did. And he gave. He gave. He didn't come. He didn't. He didn't say you give me.
So this man took all this money, all this wealth with him to give for his healing.
Because he thought that's what was going to be required. He thought, What are you thinking about tonight, my friend? God hates your thoughts.
He wants you to listen to what he says.
And so he goes to the king of Samaria and the king of Syria rather, and he says.
This man's trying to pick a flight with me. What did he send me? What does he think I am that I can feel this man of his leprosy and, you know, mysterious to me. But we know that God was over it all. But somehow Elijah heard about this.
God's sight to it. Again, we see God working behind the scenes. He's working.
Tonight, behind the scenes, he's working underground and very soon perhaps, he's going to speak to your heart and he'll make you realize what a leper you are.
Maybe you've come, you've been brought up in a Christian home, and you haven't done anything really, really bad.
I was like that.
I was preserved from a lot of things, the corruption that was in the world because I was brought up in a Christian home.
Perhaps just like most of you here.
But I want to tell you, you have a heart just like I have.
You have a heart that makes you a leper.
Full of sin, and it wants to do only those things that are bad.
Perhaps you're saying tonight. Perhaps you're you're saying you're shaking your head. Not so I can see it.
But God knows the Lord Jesus sees you tonight. He's looking down in this room and he sees your heart, and he knows exactly what the voice of your heart is saying. You're looking at me tonight and you're listening to what I'm saying, I trust. But are you listening to what God is saying? Oh, that's so important.
You. He wants you to believe what he says. Just trust him.
And so he came to pass when Israel, when the king of Israel, had read the letter.
King of Israel, I was saying. King of Syria.
He ran his clothes, and said, Am IA God to kill, and to make a lie to this man, to send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy. Wherefore consider I pray you, he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And So what It was so when the Elijah, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying.
00:45:06
Wherefore hast thou read thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know.
That there is a prophet in Israel.
We see how much God was interested in the healing of this man.
We see how God was interested in the salvation of this man's soul, and he is interested in the salvation of your soul tonight.
All come for the Lord Jesus. Listen to what he says. Look at what he has done for you. Look at the cross. You know the Jordan here. This man had to cross the Jordan in order to get there.
And the Jordan is a is a type again.
We might say of the death of Christ.
And you know the cross of Christ.
And if you bypass the cross, there's no salvation, there's no hope for you.
So this man, he had to cross the Jordan.
In order to get to this to the land of Samaria.
Then we go on in verse 9. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the House of Elijah.
So can you not see this picture? Now he turns around and he finds there's no help in the king of Israel. So he turns around and he's directed now to where he should have gone in the 1St place. And he comes to, and he stands with all his equipage in front of this man's house, and all his greatness, all his wealth, all his mighty men, his Chariots, his horses, And he stands there in all his grandeur. And he's expecting now for this man to come out.
And touch them and heal them as of his leprosy. What are you expecting? How do you expect to be saved, my friend?
You want to keep your greatness. You want to keep your pride. You want to keep your.
Your shall we say.
Your.
You don't want to give up anything. You just want to come and so there's no more change. No, I don't want anybody to see any change in me. I don't want to see there's made it, there's any. If this makes any difference, I want to be saved. Remind you, I want to go on with the way I was before. Is that your thought? Is that the way it is when you come to be saved? The whole no.
God says that, except you become as little children.
Shall not see the Kingdom of heaven. You've got to come down, my friend. This man, this man thought that this that the Prophet, seeing as how he was who he was, like Tom Papania could say, do you know who I am? Don't you touch me or I'll be the last time you ever touch anybody.
What he said, he was a great man.
And so he thought that he was going to come to this door, and Elisha would come out and he would touch him, and his leprosy would be gone, and then he would go back and he would be cleansed and continue on as he was before. No, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Know when you come to Christ with all your sins, and he washes your sins away.
You are no longer the old you, you are a new creation. He has made you a new creature in Christ. All this is wonderful to think, and not only that, but He has given you something that you never dreamed of before.
This Tom, you know, he had all the money he wanted, ever wanted. He gave it all away.
And he found out he had far more than he ever had before.
Plus he had the peace of soul that passes all understanding. He was happy in his soul.
And so you will too, my friend. Don't let the devil tell you.
That you have to hang on to this earthly riches in order to stay happy. You can't come with all of your baggage and flying Christ for your soul and return with all your baggage now.
He's going to take it all away. He's going to give you something so much more like we're talking about this afternoon. The Apostle Paul, what did he find while here was a man who had everything going for him too. And he was head and shoulders above all his peers and and yet he had to humble himself there on the road to Damascus. The Lord Jesus shone into his heart and he made him a new creature. And now he says, I press on towards the mark.
00:50:09
For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the pride. Didn't you already have it, Saul? Didn't you get everything you have, everything you ever wanted? No, he says. That's all garbage.
It's all done and now more and more as they go on from day-to-day.
I count them, but done that I might win Christ.
So you want to hang on to all your garbage?
Oh, then you're not serious. You're not really an earnest like this man. And so this man, our time is going. It's almost up.
So this man went away in a rage when he didn't, when he was told good on to Jordan and dip seven times. What a simple word. What a simple gospel. Here I am struggling with leprosy and all I have to do is this. Would you do it if that was the only? All you had to do to get rid of your sins is to wash and be clean. Oh, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you? It's all you have to do.
The Lamb of God, the the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God that shed his blood.
To wash your sins away.
And so this man went away in a range. You know, if he, Elijah had it said tell Naaman to give me all that he has in his, in his chariot, than he would have done it gladly. He brought it all to give to him. And then he could have gone and said, this is all I had to pay for my cleansing. But it was something that he could do. Or if he had said tell them and that he has to crawl back to Damascus on his knees and when he gets there he'll be healed of his lepersy, he would have done it.
But the wash in Jordan?
To go down into that filthy river, why, I just came through there and I didn't see anything particularly.
Good about that river. The rivers are far apart amount of Havana and far, far, far better than that. I'm going to go back to my country and I'll I'll washing them if that all takes is that you're thinking that you have a better way of being cleansed. You have something better than God's way.
This one who knows you through and through. The one who made you. Do you think you know better than he does?
The one who loves you.
The one who came down all the way from glory, he didn't come down from Damascus to Samaria.
Came down from the glory in order to die upon the cross, to take your sins and wash them away in his blood.
That's what God required. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, and unless you are washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, there is no cleansing for you. You'll go away as you can, and you'll go right into the lake of fire If you refuse. There is no alternative.
Believe what God says God is telling you.
He thought that Elijah Elisha would come out. Instead of that, he sent a messenger.
He was insulted.
I'm your messenger tonight.
And I don't care what you think about me. Don't listen. Don't look at me.
Listen to what God says.
Believe what God says.
I'm his messenger to night.
And so he went away in a rage, and then his servants came near him. Now we see him. He's going.
He jumps in his cherry and away goes.
As fast as he can go back to Jordan, back to Damascus, and he gets the Jordan again and he has to cross that river again.
Are you going to go buy that way again? What are you going to do in the swelling of Jordan?
When death comes upon you, my friend, where are you going? Where will you stand? Eternity.
So he comes to Jordan, and as he comes there, the soft answer turns away his rock. He had 30 miles to think about what he was what what what had gone on. And his servants say to him, Master, he'd have told you to do a great thing, wouldn't he have done it?
You're right.
He gets out of his chariot. He comes down.
And he gets down and he goes, and he steps into that river.
And he goes under. He humbles himself.
He puts himself out of sight.
And that's what you have to do, my friend. You have to put yourself away.
00:55:01
And humble yourself unto the mighty hand of God. Realize that what God says about you is true, that you are a Sinner, and except you repent, shall all likewise perish.
And so you have to come down and you have to bury yourself beneath the flow, the blood of Christ. You have to go through that river, as it were, the Lord Jesus had gone through. You have to take what was, what took place at Calvary. You accept that for yourself.
Because without Calvary Cross you won't say it.
That was the work that God did for the salvation of your soul and mine. That was His method of salvation because.
He could not look upon sin and what is what's what's he going to do? What would take away your sins? As we sing sometimes nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What will make me whole again? Nothing for the blood of Jesus.
What made him whole again? He came up out of that river and he was His skin had come as a little day and he was cleansed. All the joy that came over him. Can you imagine the joy in his face as he was like a newborn day? And that's what you will be like, my friend. You'll be born again, and you'll be saved by the mighty work of Christ upon the cross.
His work has accomplished that for you, except ye be born again cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Except you be saved, if thou should confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
We Need Water. The Water of Life Which God Gives
Children—H. Roossinck
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The blessing too. And so this morning we're going to start singing and.
We'll start.
Who has the one in this book? Like what one would you like?
#2 maybe you're thinking of #2 is a fine hymn. We'll sing the 1St and the last verse of #2 and then we'll get some more, the first verse and the last verse. Come to Jesus gently calling ye will cares and toil. All right.
Where the argument.
Come and I will give you right.
For your.
Family wants us suffered.
On the cross, the word was on.
And the word by God, now I've heard.
Through each weary soul is calm the last verse.
Come for Angel Farm using.
Or the sight, the strangely sound God.
Be seeking man refusing.
To be made forever.
Glad.
From the world.
And if they lose on now, our voice does rise as one.
For we shall God.
Invitation.
Heaven and thou reactors come.
What was the last word we sang?
What was the last word that we found? What was it?
Come, come where? The Sunday School.
Where does the Lord Jesus wants us to come? Where?
To him, that's right, and it's important to come to him while you're young.
Because you know when you get older.
It's much more difficult to come to the Lord Jesus because there's so many things that enter into our lives.
Now we don't have much time to think and I know some older people, I know a man that used to work for us and he got saved way in the later years. And just two days ago he was over our place. I hadn't seen him for quite a while and he said to me, he said you know, I said I was digging through some of my old rubbish and he said I come across a little book and it said Rex on the Burma Rd. Somebody mentioned that yesterday and I was so happy that he seemed to value that book.
And evaluate some other little stories that were in the Sunday school paper. Because he was an older man when he turned to the Lord Jesus and he stayed. And I'm sure I'll see him in heaven. OK, who's got another hymn? Let's try to go to the Backpage if you can. But you can take another one. Which one would you like? 16 OK, then we'll go to the other side of the room next. Whosoever hear us shout, shout the sound.
Whosoever here rush.
The sound sound, the blasted hiding all the world around.
Spread the joyful news.
Wherever man is found.
Whosoever will make come?
The so ever will grow, so ever will.
Then the proclamation over Veil and Hill.
Is a loving father.
All the wonderful whom so ever well may come.
Whosoever come must, must not delay.
Now the door is all far. Enter while you may.
Jesus is the truth, the only living way.
00:05:04
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will, whosoever will.
Then the proclamation over valence you.
There's a loving father called the Wander Home.
Whosoever will may come.
Who does that mean? Whosoever.
Does that mean everybody in this room?
What do you think? Do you think it means everybody in this room? I'm sure it does. Whosoever will may come. If you don't come now, tomorrow might be too late. Tomorrow might be too late because there's two things that could happen.
What two things might happen before tomorrow?
What my You could die? You could die. What else might happen before tomorrow? You've answered a question. I got to get something out of these. What might happen? The Lord might come.
And if the Lord comes, it will be too late to come, because the door will be shut.
You know, boys and girls, I want you to remember two things this morning, that everyone of you are saved or lost.
Keep those words in mind as you grow older. Save or lost? There's no in between. Save or lost. OK, who has another hymn? Let's go in from the Backpage. OK, what one do you have?
Young lady.
47 good.
When he cometh, well, that's a nice hymn. When he comes. When he comes.
To make up his jewels. All his jewels, right? Just jewels. His love and his own. Like the stars of the morning.
And bright round our Dorning today shall they shall shine in his deer's beauty.
Right. Yeah, for his Brown.
He will gather. He will gather.
Large gems for his Kingdom. All the pure ones, all the bright ones.
They love them his own, like the stars of God.
Good morning.
And bright brown adorning.
There's a shining.
There's beauty.
Bright down for him.
Little children, little children.
Who love their Redeemer.
Are the new of righteous.
His love and hello.
Like the stars of the morning.
Yeah, right around us. Morning.
Us shine and his beauty.
Cry down for his crown.
You know, that's a very comforting hymn when we think of little children who have been called home. And sometimes the Lord does take little children home before they have reached very many years of life in this world. And so it's important to come to the Lord Jesus right now and ask him to be your Savior.
And tell me now, is there anyone here who knows why we need a savior? Why do we need a savior?
Why would you say we needed a savior?
If we don't wanna go to hell.
What? What keeps us from going to heaven?
What? Satan. Satan. Yes, there's another word I'm thinking of. Do you know the word I'm thinking of? Sin. Sin. Sin. How do you spell sin?
00:10:12
SIN. What's the middle letter?
Aye, aye. So you'll see, we're all enclosed in that word, sin. Everyone in this world is born in sin except the Lord Jesus. When he was born, He was the only one that had no sin. So He was the only one that can be our Savior. And we're so thankful this morning that we can be reminded of the Lord Jesus in so many, many ways. And a little later on, we'll be remembering the Lord in his death, and then we're already going to be reminded that He bore our sins on the cross if we put our faith and trust in Him. OK, who's got another one?
Oh, I get one more from this side yet. OK, which one would you like to sing?
40 OK Oh, you know. 40 Jesus loves me. You know that one, don't you? OK, let's sing. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me that I know. For the final salvation.
Are we? But he is strong.
Yeah, Jesus loves me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's a lovely.
Survival. Tell me so.
Jesus loves me, He heard I.
Have on a gate to open the wine. He will wash away my sins.
Let a little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yeah, Jesus love.
Yeah, Jesus loves me the Bible.
Tells me so.
Jesus loves me though. I'm that.
Anyway to make me glad?
Way to hold me in his arm keeps me.
Safe from every harm.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yeah, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, love me still.
When I'm very weak, And now from his shining place on high, come to watch me when I lie.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yeah, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus lost me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loved me. He will stay close beside me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die?
He will Take Me Home on high.
Yeah.
Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yeah.
Jesus loves me.
My Bible, help me. So what do you think we ought to do after we had been singing about the Lord Jesus loving us and that he died for us? What do you think would be a good thing to do right now?
To thank him, I think that would be a real nice. So let's just close our eyes and fold our hands and we'll thank the Lord Jesus together.
00:15:08
Our blessed God and our Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus.
And we thank the Lord Jesus that we could sing together this morning. Jesus loves me and all. Precious Savior, we thank Thee that every one of these boys and girls are known unto thee. Now know us all about them, and we thank Thee.
That others go to that cross of Calvary and their suffer and die.
In order that we might live all blessed Savior, we pray that everyone of these boys and girls.
Would put their faith and trust in thee. And if there's any older one here in the room this morning.
That doesn't know the Lord Jesus as Savior. We pray that Thou has helped them to see their need and to turn to Thee. So we pray for blessing on the gospel wherever it's going forth today. But we especially ask for Thy help and blessing here this morning, and we ask it with Thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
I think we could sing one more yet.
OK, we haven't. Who hasn't given one out before?
OK, what one would you have?
#44.
OK, all this is that not nice one about that little gypsy boy we sang this last Sunday at our place at our Sunday school.
And that and where I did say boy lay dying alone at the close of the day.
News of salvation, we carried that he nobody ever has told that to me.
Tell it again.
Tell it again.
Salvation story repeat our end of our.
Hell, none can say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
That is all of me, a poor little boy.
Stand under me the good tidings of joy. Need I not perish my hand will he hold?
Nobody, ever. The story has told.
Tell it again.
Tell it again.
Salvation. Sorry, Repeat or an hour.
Helen can say I'm the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
Are Manning. We caught the last words of his breath just as he entered the valley of death. God sent his son, whosoever said he.
Then I am sure that he sent him for me.
Tell it again.
Tell it again.
Salvation story, Repeat or and.
All none can say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
How many learned the verse in the Sunday School paper last week?
I see some hands and some probably thought if we go to a conference we won't have to learn the verse because there'll be so many boys and girls there. But I'll tell you what we'll do instead of if I can find my paper.
I should know what my heart, shouldn't I?
But I need a little help too.
And this is 2 verses I believe.
Who knows where the verse is found?
OK, where was the verse? Down.
2827 and 28 right and I'm going to read it to you first very slowly and carefully and you listen and then we'll see it together. All of us OK it is appointed under man wants to what's the next word?
00:20:15
Quite a few of you know that, but after this the.
Judgment.
So Christ was once offered to bear.
The sins of many very good. OK, let's all say it together. It is appointed on demand, wants to die, but after this, the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Hebrews 927 and 28. You know, it's very good to have those scriptures before us and to be reminded.
That the Lord Jesus.
Died that we might be spared from judgment, because you know our sins.
Which shut us out from the presence of God. You know, God is up in heaven and there's no sin in heaven, no sin in heaven, and there can be no sinners in heaven. There can be saved people up there, Saints, but not in their sins. And so the only way, there was only one way that you and I could ever get to heaven, and that is that God had to send his beloved Son.
The Lord Jesus into this world.
To go to the cross of Calvary, and there bear the judgment of God against. And he died that we might live. But if you don't accept him as your Savior, you will have to die in your sins and all. What a terrible thing that would be if you died in your sins. There would be no hope for you if you died in your sins. But we want you to all be have your faith and trust in the Lord. And that's why the brethren here had a special meeting for children.
So you can hear the gospel once more and I hope that I can present the gospel to you. Now, most of you know that. I think most of you know, maybe the other children or the older ones know that one of the things that I like is to grow fruit. And we work with fruit trees. And I don't have a tree with me today, but sometimes I've taken a tree with me. And but I'm going to tell you a little story about trees. You know, you read about trees. Where do you think you read about trees first in the Bible?
Anybody know?
Where?
West Chapter.
Do I think you can go back one more chapter once? I'm going to read you a little bit from Genesis chapter one.
And.
You know when the Lord created the heavens and the earth, we know that there was, it says that there was, the earth was without form and void and darkness. But I'm going to read you a verse, verse nine. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place.
Now you know children, I know most of you have heard this verse from the Psalms.
About the Lord Jesus, where it says all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. And probably you were like me, you didn't really understood understand what that really meant. But it really meant that all the judgment of God against sin was born by the Lord Jesus. And God was so anxious to get this to his people that he way back here in the first chapter of Genesis, he says let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto 1.
Play. And then he thought perhaps about his Son, the Lord Jesus, who would.
Someday bear the judgment in order that we might be set free. And so then it says, and let the dry land appear. You know, there could be no blessing in this world. There couldn't be any fruit trees in this world. It's a dry land in the pier. But in the very next verse, I believe it is, or a verse or two down, verse 11, it says, let the earth bring forth grass and the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding, her fruit yielding.
After his kind.
Whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was soul. So in the very first chapter of our Bible we read about fruit trees. And I know that God knows how that every one of us can bear fruit for him too. But we have to first of all come to the Lord Jesus and accept Him as our Savior. Now it tells about a lot of fruit trees really in the Bible. And in the 12Th verse it says about the fruit whose seed within itself after his kind.
00:25:27
And you know, there's a lot of things about fruit trees. There's something about the oak tree that speaks about man. We won't talk about that right now. But then there is the palm trees at the children of Israel rested under. Oh, God loves trees and he loves boys and girls and men and women everywhere and wants us to put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. But now we're going to go to.
Psalm, Chapter one.
And there we talk about 32. The trees are mentioned everywhere in the Bible, and it's such a big subject and it's so nice to try to understand a little bit. So the first verse of Psalm one said, blessed is the man. You want to be blessed by the Lord. OK, now here's the instruction. Blessed be the man, or we might say the boy or the girl or the young person. And last night our brother in the gospel was very faithful in giving solid words of warning.
Because if we don't listen to God's Word and we want to go our own way.
We're going to have to reap the results. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. And so it's important. This first verse in the Psalm is a very important verse. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
You know, first people.
Maybe they start walking in the path of the ungodly, and then it goes on further. It says, nor standeth in the way of sinners. Remember how Peter stood one time, you know, by the fire warm himself, and he had his eye off the Lord, and he was looking at the people around him, and he was not quite ready to take his stand with the Lord as he thought he was. And so he was standing there. Well then it says here.
Nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of a scornful.
You know, that's the way it goes. It's a downward step. So boys and girls, we want you to be very, very careful what kind of friends you find in school.
Because sometimes friends in school will take us away from the Lord and get us to try to reason out in our minds about things instead of accepting faith from as a gift that God gives faith and trust in His beloved Son. Well, that's why we're here this morning. We want you boys and girls to be assured to be sure that you walk with those who are Christians and find your fellowship with them.
And I want to warn this for the older ones too, because I know that some of you are in school, high school, college, and wherever it may be. And the kind of friendship that we keep, and even after you get as old as I am, the kind of friendship we keep is going to leave its mark in our life.
So try to choose the right friends. How do you try to choose the right friends? Who do you go to to choose the right friend? Would you go? Would you ask your mom and dad? That would be good. If there's somebody else that you can go to, who is it?
Who is it?
The Lord. That's right, we can go to the Lord, and boys and girls, don't ever think you're too.
Young to come to the Lord Jesus. You're not too young to ask him to help you.
And so we want to tell you this morning that it's very important for you to come to the Lord Jesus while you're young. Now there's another verse in Jeremiah. You know, I think every book in the Bible has something about a tree in it. I'm not sure. I haven't read it very that careful, but I don't doubt. But there's something about a tree and in nearly every book in the Bible.
And Jeremiah 17, it says this blessed is a man that trusteth in the Lord. And we could say here blessed are the children.
That trust in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
And then it says he shall be in the eighth verse as a tree.
Planted by the water, a tree planted by the waters. Well, you know, this year we set out about 1000 young trees and we wanted to be sure that all those trees had water to drink. So after we set the trees out, we ran a little tiny pipeline down each row of the trees. And that little pipeline is plastic. It has little holes every eight or 10 inches, about every 10 inches, I guess it is. It has a little hole and a little drip of water will come out.
00:30:18
That little hole and it'll feed that tree. You know, boys and girls, you need to be fed by the word of God. Now you may not have much time in the morning when you get up to read their Bible, but remember the Bible is the the water that we get to grow these trees.
It is just like the water that you and I need from reading our Bibles. We need to read our Bibles.
And then the Lord helps us to grow, and he will keep us from reading the wrong kind of stories that would destroy our Christian life. So it says here, He should be like as a tree planted by the waters that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and none, and shall not see when the heat cometh.
Well, these little trees that we planted this year, we had to stay maybe.
8 or 12 inches away from the tree, we couldn't get any closer than that to drop that line alongside those trees.
But you know, in about another year or so if we were to dig those trees up because we've done this before.
Then we find that all the roots of the trees, they seem to be able to tell where the water is and they go right to that spot and they get their nourishment in that water and.
I remember that I was told that we should always put that water line on the one side of the tree where the wind was going to blow the other way. So we get mostly West winds up at our place and you do throughout most of the country. So you should plant that water line on the West side of the tree. However, in our situation, they planted part of them on the West side and part of them on the east side. So I said to the, you know, my nephews that I work with, I said well, watch that and see how well.
If there's any difference, because if you get the roots on the West side and growing real good, it will keep that tree from blowing over in the wind. You see the trees we plant today aren't, they don't have very deep roots. And so we need to feed them. Well, they need help and you and I need help too. We have the word of God and we need to be fed. And if we, the trees are lacking something, they could mix in perhaps a little bit of nitrogen or something in that water so the trees that grow a little bit better.
Well, it says here this tree is like it's planted by.
There are waters that spreadeth out our roots by the river. Well, you know the river.
Water speaks of water that's flowing all the time and there's light and you know, that's the way the word of God is, is really gives us life. It gives us something that we can really enjoy. And if you boys and girls enjoy some little thing about the Bible, some little verse, tell somebody else. Tell your mom or your dad or your brother or your sister and it'll encourage them. Tell your friends and it's nice to be a help to one another.
And it says they shall not see when the heat come up. You know, there is a coming a time in our lives and all of our lives.
And I think especially if you young people there, there comes a time in your life when the heat is going to be put on, as they say, and you're going to have to make some decisions. You're going, life is full of decisions. I got a little game one time many, many years ago and it's called decisions. And you had to decide which button you were going to push. Play this little game of decision, but it was full of decisions. Well, that's the way life is.
And you have to make the right choice. The only way you'll know how to make the right choice and spiritual things is going to the Bible to get.
Our understanding about what would be right and pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
Well, it says release shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. It says shall not be careful. Now that really means it's not going to matter what happens. This tree got her strength in the river and you don't have to be full of care about what's going on if we get our strength from the word of God.
But the word careful really means not so much to be careful about what we do, although that's a good thing to do.
But just don't get worried, because the Lord Jesus is the one who can give us everything that we need every day of our life. And if we do, we'll be like that fruitful tree.
00:35:05
And the next verse in that Jeremiah 17 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You know, I know what my heart is like. I can't see into your heart. But I know that I need help every day, Every day of my life, I need help. And I'm so thankful that in the morning when I get up that I have a little bit of time, that I can sit down and read the Bible and then I can just pray.
And justice, commit myself to the Lord for the day, boys and girls, I hope you'll get in the habit of doing something like that. Don't follow me, but follow the word of God and you'll realize that the Lord wants us to put our not only our faith and trust in Him, but He wants us to have confidence in his Word. And He will guide us and keep us and direct us. Now there's another place that we read about fruit.
We read about the tree in the first chapter of the Bible. What do you think is in the last chapter of the Bible?
Well, let's turn to it. If you have your Bibles, and if you don't have your Bibles, you just listen.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the street of it. On either side of the river was the tree of life that bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation.
You know, this gives us a little picture of what heaven is going to be like. There's going to be the tree of life.
And all the difficulties that are in the world today, and there are so many difficulties and they don't know how to account for all the things that are taking place. They don't know what to do as they look ahead and they don't want to look that far ahead. But if you and I look ahead, we can remember that there's a wonderful time coming and there's going to be the tree of life. Oh, we were going to, I was going to tell you too, about the trees in the Garden of Eden.
Many different kinds of trees in the Garden of Eden wasn't there. There's a tree of good and the knowledge of good and evil. Then there was the tree.
I better turn out and read it.
In the 17th verse we read.
The 16th verse the Lord God commanded the man, saying of every three of the gardens.
Thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest arrived, thou shalt surely die. Well, you know, man was given that choice, not really a choice, but he was told not to eat of it. And when sometimes when we're told not to do something, that's the very thing we want to do, That's because we have a sinful nature within us that wants to do just the opposite of what the Word of God tells us. But we want your children to, really.
Remember that the Lord Jesus is there to help us and He will always help us if we come to Him. We want you to come to Him early in the morning first thing when you wake up. If you can't do any more than well, I don't want to. I'm going to repeat something that I heard the brothers during the meeting this morning. I think I don't see anything He said every morning when I wake up, he said, I throw my arms back and I say thank you Lord for this day.
And I hope you'll be willing to do that.
You know, at less than Mark, I mean, I heard this many, many years ago and this mother said, I wake up in the morning and I put my arms out like that and I just say thank you, Lord, for this day, for saving my soul and giving me eternal life. If you just say that much. And maybe I'll add a little bit more pretty soon and ask the Lord to help you and to keep you. And that's a good way to start out today to thank the Lord together. I mean, thank the Lord individually because he likes to hear our voice.
Somebody has read the verse yesterday and.
Just come, let me hear thy voice. Oh, he is. The Lord wants to hear our voices. So now, in closing, let's sing one more hymn.
We didn't sing.
00:40:02
41 So let's close our meeting this morning with singing hymn 41. Around the throne of God in heaven will many children sing? It doesn't say all, but I trust that everyone here will be among that number. Children whose sins are all forgiven will heavenly anthem bring OK 41.
Around the throne I've gone in heaven dwelled.
Many children.
Children.
Are all forgiven? Well heavenly and thumbs break singing glory.
Glory.
Glory.
And the shining of the spotless white is one will be one will be arrayed.
An everlasting life and joy that never paid singing glory.
Sorry, glory, Glory.
To God.
On high.
What brings them to that world of that heavens, all bright and fair?
Where all is peace and joy and the love of God.
Those children.
They're singing glory.
Glory.
Glory to God.
Because.
Our Savior shed his blood.
Stupers away their sins.
Now wash them alive. Mulch rush on blood. Behold and widen. Clean. Now wait a minute. Please wait a minute.
Stand up.
Sorry, Glory.
To God.
I will repeat that chorus.
The Lord.
Seated, you know the reason I asked you to stand is because it says glory, glory, glory be to God on high. Now the next meeting that we hope to have here, Lord willing, will be to remember God's love in sending his beloved Son into this world and to go through death that we might have everlasting life. So we really want to give God the glory. Now let's just commend ourselves to the Lord.
Our blessing God and our Father, we do indeed thank Thee this morning that we could be here to speak of Thy love. We know it was done in a very feeble way, but already able to use Thy word for blessing to each one of us. We pray for these dear boys and girls, and do pray that early in their years they may put their faith and trust in Thee. And then we think of our dear young people too, and the older ones, all of us, how much we need Thy help.
Help us to realize and feel our dependence upon Thee. We know Thou does delight to bring blessing into our lives and so we thank thee for the land that appeared when all the waters were gathered together in one place and now they can be blessing blow out. We thank Thee. Lord Jesus, commend us to Thee and then thy precious and worthy name, Amen. Now the Sunday school papers are on the either end of the stage there for the children or something who need a copy. So be sure you pick up a copy so you can learn your verse.
Thank you. Would you please pass the song sheets to the center of the room?
00:45:02
A black man fear.